SHANGLA: The land acquired for construction of a prison in Shangla district has been de-notified again by the government, allegedly under political pressure.
This was claimed by Shangla action committee president Fayaz Ahmed Khan while talking to mediapersons at Alpuri here on Tuesday. Members of the committee, who are also office-bearers of the district bar association, were present on the occasion.
He said that first the site for the jail was selected at Lelonai, then in Bisham, Ghorband Dehrai, and now it was decided that the district prison would be constructed near the sports ground in Alpuri, where section-4 for the land acquisition was imposed by the deputy commissioner.
“The PC-I was also finalised and we were expecting that the construction work on the jail would be started soon, but the other day we heard that district jail, Swat, superintendent has issued a directive to Shangla DC to de-notify the land acquired for the jail,” he said.
He said that following the directive, the Shangla DC had withdrawn section 4 from the site and hence the project was further delayed.
The action committee chairman said that due to absence of jail in the district the poor inmates from Shangla, including those involved in petty offences, had to go to jails in Swat and Daggar in Buner. He said that the area police were also facing problems due to lack of jail in the district.
Fayaz Ahmed alleged that information minister Shaukat Yousafzai was creating hindrances to establishment of jail. He claimed two months ago Mr Yousafzai had called for changing the site of the prison, but the action committee office-bearers in a meeting had urged him not to change the site.
He said that the action committee had decided to challenge the de-notification of the acquired site of jail in Peshawar High Court.
