Humanitarianism at its best

Bhimber's businessperson offers yet again his precious land for a public cause free of cost 

At a time when materialism appears to be increasing exponentially and people do not recoil at the thought of making away with fellow human beings on petty land disputes, some exceptions however betoken that the society is not bereft of the goodness of mankind.

One such example drew the attention of this scribe after a brief official handout disclosed that a local businessman in Bhimber district of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) had once again offered his precious land to the AJK government for a project of public utility.

The handout said that Khawaja Zaffar Iqbal Butt handed over transfer deed of 30 kanals of land, worth at least Rs 60 million, to AJK Prime Minister Raja Farooq Haider at a brief ceremony in Bhimber, the other day, for establishment of a technical education institution thereon.

Prime Minister Raja Farooq Haider (right) and Chairman TEVTA Zafar Nabi 

Butt receive land transfer deed from Khawaja Zaffar Iqbal Butt (middle)

AJK’s senior minister Chaudhry Tariq Farooq, who represents Bhimber city in the AJK legislature, minister for information Mushtaq Minhas, MLA from Barnala Col retired Waqar Noor and several other government functionaries were also present on the occasion.

Bhimber is likely to home an industrial zone under the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). Mr Butt said he wished to see young boys and girls imparted training in different skills to meet the requirement of skilled human resource for the proposed zone and added that chairman AJK Technical Education and Vocational Authority Zafar Nabi Butt, who also belongs to Bhimber, had drawn his attention towards this noble deed.  

The prime minister was so much moved by the generosity that he announced on the occasion that the government would establish a full-fledged College of Technology on the land by allocating resources for it in the next fiscal year.

Interestingly, the PWD Rest House, where the ceremony was held, has also been built on a piece of land donated by Mr Butt to the AJK government in 2010.

Initially, Mr Butt was asked to spare just 2 kanals for the rest house but he offered 3 kanals. And by the time the project saw completion it had been spread over 5 kanals, but Mr Butt never raised his eyebrow at the expansion.

And it was not the only piece of land offered by the Good Samaritan for a public cause. There were already many other in the list.

Previously, Mr Butt had spared land not only for a mosque and adjacent seminary in a housing scheme raised by him in Bhimber city, but also two plots for construction of the buildings of Rescue 1122 and press club.

It did not end here, in 2013 and 2014, he gave 40 plots of one kanal each to Bhimber based professionals, such as academics lawyers, doctors and engineers, and as many plots of 7-marla each to the local landless people in his housing scheme, without any charges.

The 52 year old, who spent considerable time of his life in United Kingdom as a dual nationality holder before returning to Pakistan, had purchased 3500 kanals in Bhimber city in 2004. Later, he also built an RCC bridge over a wide water channel to connect his land with local courts and other offices.

 Khawaja Zaffar Iqbal Butt

When this scribe contacted Mr Butt by telephone on Sunday, he was initially reluctant to speak about his philanthropic work, but when pressed to share details for the purpose of spurring others to follow the suit, he agreed and said whatever he had given was a peanut of what he had got from the Lord.

“It’s not my land that I have donated to different people without any charges… It’s Allah’s land and His trust to me… It was He Who guided me earn money in UK to be able to buy this land in 2004,” he said.

Mr Butt said all through his life he had not greased the palm of anyone to expedite his deals, even though sometimes he had to pay the price, apparently.

“But in the end I always came triumphant… I left everything to my Creator and He smoothed the ways for me beyond my expectations.”

Tariq Naqash 

Four protestors, three cops injured as police thwart move to intercept AJK PM's cavalcade

Four protestors were injured when police fired tear gas and launched baton charge at a mob trying to disrupt the movement of Prime Minister Raja Farooq Haider’s cavalcade in Bhimber district of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) on Saturday.

Police said they were forced to use batons after the mob, affiliated with a former legislative assembly speaker from the area, attacked the convoy and resorted to stone pelting, breaking windowpanes of at least three vehicles.

The stone pelting also left three policemen slightly wounded, police claimed.

The incident occurred near Bab-e-Kashmir Bridge at about 9:30am, when Mr Haider was heading towards Samahni valley to address a political gathering on the last leg of his four-day tour to the southernmost district, most of which straddles the Line of Control.

The protest was linked with likely acquisition of land for an industrial zone under the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project, even though the government has not decided exact site for it as yet. 

It may be recalled that recently the AJK government had told media that Beijing had agreed to set up an industrial zone in Bhimber district under CPEC due to the area’s proximity with GT Road.

According to officials, four different sites in district Bhimber were under consideration for the proposed industrial zone, to be spread over 8000 kanals of land.

However, around one hundred supporters of former speaker Anwaar ul Haq assembled along the route of the premier to “draw his attention towards their demands,” which included that “acquisition should not be initiated before distribution of their share in shamilat land.”

Witnesses and official sources told that officers of divisional and district administration tried to convince the protestors to avoid disrupting the movement, but to no avail.

Sources disclosed that Mr Haq wanted Mr Haider to visit his place to “allay the concerns of the people of the area,” a demand which the prime minister’s staff told him could not be met immediately due to the already scheduled engagements. 

However, the prime minister had agreed to have a meeting with a delegation anytime later.

When the cavalcade drove past the protestors, some of them tried to come in front of the premier’s staff car, but officials thwarted their bid.

Policemen trying to keep the protestors away from PM's staff car

As the PM’s vehicle moved ahead, the protestors started pelting stones on other vehicles in the cavalcade, which compelled the police to lob tear gas shells and launch baton charge to disperse them, sources said.

Nevertheless, the vehicles of principal secretary, director general PM office and press secretary to the PM were slightly damaged, they added.

In the ensuing clash between both sides, seven persons, including three cops, received minor injuries and bruises. Only one protestor had his wound stitched.

A senior police officer who spoke to this scribe on condition of anonymity said that the protestors appeared to be non-serious in dialogue on their demands.

“They just wanted to create an issue and make headlines in the media,” he remarked.

The officer said that the police and administration showed leniency towards them or else the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for the PM’s cavalcade demanded a strict action against troublemakers.

Police were reported to have booked several persons for creating law and order problem. 

An official spokesman said the protest appeared to settle some political score in the name of a process that was yet to be kicked off - a reference to the acquisition of land. 

It may be recalled that Mr Haq had held the office of speaker from Aug 2010 to July 2011 in a term mired in allegations of favouritism as he made more than 60 appointments of his constituents, including that of his cousin as LA secretary in BS-21, at his sole discretion.

He joined PPP in April 2011, but lost general elections in July the same year  to Chaudhry Tariq Farooq of PML. During the PPP government, he was appointed as chairman of a so-called “good governance committee” by Ms Faryal Talpur who called the shots in AJK then.

However, shortly before July 2016 elections he declined to accept PPP ticket and contested as an independent candidate, once again to be defeated by Mr Farooq, currently the senior minister in PML-N government.

At a press conference in Bhimber, Mr Haq hurled several allegations on Mr Farooq, including that he had received a share from Rs12 billion earmarked by the federal government from CPEC to establish industrial zone in Bhimber.

He added that he could produce evidence that the minister had “forged papers to receive money from the project.”

However, Mr Farooq declined to offer any comment on his allegations, saying that his electorate as well as his party leadership in Islamabad and Muzaffarabad knew well the actual cause of discomfort of his rivals.

“It’s for the first time a prime minister has held a detailed tour of Bhimber in almost a decade, has addressed and attended over a dozen public meetings and development briefings, and announced several uplift projects… This obviously has not gone well with the people who deliberately kept this district backward in the past, notwithstanding their clout,” he said.

Tariq Naqash 

NTDC asked to change power transmission line route

AJK-EPA says that the hydropower project’s line route would impact the environment

The Azad Jammu and Kashmir Environment Protection Agency (AJK-EPA) has taken strong exception to the impending loss of vegetative cover along the proposed route of transmission line of a hydropower project in view of its environmental impact on the city of Muzaffarabad. 

The agency has asked the National Transmission and Despatch Company (NTDC) to halt the process at the earliest and find some alternative route to avoid environmental degradation in the area.

The 147-megawatt Patrind hydropower project has been built by a Korean company – Star Hydropower - on build-operate-own-transfer (BOOT) basis and likely to be commissioned sometime next month.

The powerhouse is located along the right bank of River Jhelum across the Lower Chattar neighbourhood of Muzaffarabad.

On Feb 7, the EPA director general, Chief Conservator of Forests and a technical team from the NTDC had visited the project site and after detailed deliberations with experts, the EPA had informed all stakeholders in unequivocal terms that the current route proposed for power transmission was not viable in terms of environmental approach. 

According to an EPA document, addressed to NTDC and copied to top AJK government functionaries, the patch of the forest, proposed to be hacked, was in the immediate vicinity of Muzaffarabad city and contributed to its beauty, visual amenity and biodiversity (ecological) services for human beings. 

Additionally, cutting of Chir Pines in such a big number with such age and height was also bound to cause biomass loss amounting in thousands of tons, which could not be compensated in centuries, let alone years, added the document.  

View of the mountain before construction of project

view of the mountain after construction of project 

The EPA document said that the project had already caused significant erosion of green vegetation comprising large size Chir pine trees, shrubs and a miscellany of floral species. 

The magnitude of irreversible changes that the project had already made to the vegetative cover at the powerhouse site could be assessed from Google imagery, before and after its execution, it added. 

“In case the NTDC finds itself with no other option for power evacuation except hacking dense forests for the purpose, it will contribute to an irreparable environmental loss, in sheer disregard to the very concept of ‘sustainable development’ and thus impermissible by law,” the EPA document read. 

The EPA warned that in case the dense canopies of exiting fully-grown Pine trees were chopped down, landslide would occur and eventually aggravated by huge top load (spoil) and sharp gradient of the area, thus putting the sustainability and viability of the project, particularly the powerhouse, at stake. 

The EPA regretted that Star Hydropower had “unilaterally” changed the design of the project by shifting switchyard from a designated and approved site on the left bank of river to the right bank without prior intimation and approval of the agency.

The AJK Environmental Protection Act of 2000 explicitly stipulates that “no proponent of a project shall commence construction or operation unless he has filed with EPA an Initial Environmental Examination or where the project is likely to cause an adverse environmental effect, an Environmental Impact Assessment, and has obtained from the EPA approval in respect thereof.” 

Even the NTDC had neither formally informed nor applied for environmental NOC under law, or else this situation could have been averted, the EPA said. 

The EPA has maintained that the present critical state of affairs with reference to environmental adverse impacts was, ostensibly, developed as a result of ignorance of both the Star Hydropower and the NTDC, for they had not followed AJK’s environmental law in letter and in spirit.

“In order to propose a viable way forward, a committee comprising the technical experts of NTDC, Star Hydropower and AJK Forests Department should be constituted to look for the alternatives aimed at securing the natural resources in compliance of the objectives of sustainable development,” suggested the agency. 

Earlier, in response to the EPA’s concerns about the felling of Pine trees for the transmission line, the NTDC had maintained that if the latter failed to install HT line for evacuation of power by interconnecting with local grid station Muzaffarabad-II (Rampura), the Central Power Purchasing Agency (CPPA) will have to pay penalties (to the Korean company). 

When this scribe contacted EPA Director General Raja Mohammad Razzaque, he confirmed that his office had conveyed concerns to all relevant persons in the interest of environment of the area. 

Tariq Naqash