MANSEHRA: The Peshawar High Court’s Abbottabad Circuit Bench on Thursday served notices on the National Highway Authority’s chairman and the federal communication secretary, directing them to appear before it on August 5 in a Kaghan land case.

Justice Syed Mudasser Ameer and Justice Aurangzeb also sought a report from them on the matter.

Over 3,000 landowners had moved the court to seek orders for authorities to pay for their land acquired for the Mansehra-Naran-Jalkhad Road in Kaghan valley.

Lawyers Sardar Nasir Aslam and Syed Asif Shah appeared for them and pleaded the court to order the NHA to immediately release payments to their clients.

“The NHA has illegally and forcefully occupied land of our clients in 2001 in Balakot tehsil and constructed the Mansehra-Naran-Jalkhad Road over it but didn’t pay them for it even two and a half decades later,” Mr Aslam informed the court.

One of the petitioners, retired General Salaudden Tirmazi, later told reporters that their land, mostly in Kaghan valley, was occupied by NHA without imposing Section 4 as required by the law.

“Our land worth billions of rupees was taken over by the NHA without enforcing Section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act in 2011, and we are still without any sort of compensation even after the passage of around 25 years,” he said.

Mr Tirmazi said that he had taken up that issue in a Senate committee meetingand got orders for the NHA to pay landowners the due money within three months.

“The NHA, in breach of the Senate committee’s order, didn’t pay over 3,000 landowners settled in Kaghan valley for centuries,” he said.

The petitioner said the counsel also raised questions about the recently imposed toll on the MNJ Road in Kaghan Valley and pleaded to the court to order an immediate halt to toll collection.

PROTESTS: Chairmen and representatives of local governments on Thursday announced the launch of street protests from August 5 to demand development funds and empowerment under the Local Government Act, 2013.

“We will stage a sit-in outside the provincial assembly in Peshawar by August 5 and hold rallies and protests before it across the province as we are still deprived of development funds, incentives, and administrative powers,” Basharat Ali Swati, general secretary of the Local Governments Alliance, told reporters.

He said a meeting, held in the day and attended by a large number of local government chairmen from across the district, decided about street protests for their constitutional and legal rights.

Mr Swati urged the provincial government to immediately release development funds and empower chairmen of the tehsil, village and neighbourhood councils under the Local Government Act, 2013.

“As part of our protest strategy, local government representatives will hold rallies and demonstrations at tehsil and district headquarters to press for their demands,” he said.

Mr Swati said public support would also be mobilised for the cause.

Meanwhile, residents of Batdarian and adjoining areas on Thursday took to the streets to demand the relocation of a slaughterhouse from a densely populated locality.

“We have approached officials of the relevant departments multiple times, urging them to shift the slaughterhouse over environmental and health issues, but to no avail,” protester Abdul Aziz Khattana said in the Batdarian area.

They warned if the authorities failed to act before the start of next month, protests would be expanded and the Karakoram Highway would be blocked.

Published in Dawn, July 18th, 2025