‘Forest land encroached by former, sitting MPAs’

[Lahore_Real_Estate]

KARACHI: Thousands of acres of forestland throughout the province is under the illegal possession of influential personalities of the province, Sindh Home Minister Dr Zulfiqar Mirza, who also holds the Forests Department portfolio, informed the Sindh Assembly on Friday replying to a query during the Question Hour.

Former caretaker Sindh chief minister Sardar Mumtaz Ali Bhutto, former revenue minister Altaf Unar in Larkana, former water and power minister Liaquat Jatoi in Dadu, and former ministers and sitting parliamentarians, the Shirazis of Thatta were named as the biggest occupiers of forestland in their respective districts.

When Pakistan People’s Party member Sharjeel Memon insisted upon the minister to divulge the names of those involved in the menace, Mirza said he could start from Garhi Yasin (the native town of Sindh Local Government Minister Agha Siraj Durani) and Larkana.

However, when PPP’s Naeem Kharl asked about the situation in Khairpur (Mirs), the minister did not take any specific names and simply said the land would be vacated.

The home minister said the government had allotted forestland on a five-year lease to develop Agro-forestry in the province under the Agro-Forestry Lease Policy, 2005. He said the leaseholders were bound to grow trees on 25 percent area, adding the department has issued show cause notices to around 952 leaseholders and cancelled 116 leases for violating the rules.

Mirza said his department has retrieved some 1,250 acres of forestland in Thatta, where influential persons got a small area on lease and encroached upon the rest. He added when action was initiated against the land grabbers, including an MNA and an MPA, they started saying they were being politically victimised. The minister said the influential personalities had received the forestland leased mostly in the names of their family members.

He further said the present government would distribute the recovered land to landless farmers, especially women throughout the province. staff report