ISLAMABAD: Owners of some land located at the centre of three of the most famous mountain ranges have filed a complaint before the prime minister against the forced acquisition of the land they inherited for the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project by the Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) administration.

The land in question, which is surrounded by the Himalayas and the Karakoram and Hindu Kush ranges, has been selected for the Special Economic Zone of CPEC.

The complaint filed by Shah Jehan Mushapa and other residents of the Maqpon Das Village in the Denyuore tehsil in Gilgit, says that in order to please their rival tribe, the GB bureaucracy had forcibly acquired their land, which had been under their possession for generations. According to the complaint, the locals were given rights of the land in 1893. It says the GB administration had recently selected Maqpon Das for CPEC and acquired the land free of cost. The complainants say they are not against the CPEC project but the way that the GB administration has acquired their land is unlawful and unacceptable to the locals.

Published in Dawn, March 17th, 2017