1407 acres land allocated for cantt areas in Gwadar
ALIA KASHIF
ISLAMABAD (April 27 2005): Defence minister Rao Sikander Iqbal on a question raised by Senator Ilyas Ahmad Bilour informed the Senate that Rs 967.3 million had been spent on upgradation of airports during last two years and said there is no proposal regarding construction of a new airport in Peshawar. He said Rs 1,716 million were collected as airport tax. The defence minister told the house that the federal government has transferred 1407 acres land from provincial government of Balochistan for construction of cantonment areas in coastal area of Gwadar.

To a question on the maintenance expenditures of airports, the minister said an amount of Rs 113,466 was being spent by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) for Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad, Peshawar, Quetta and Gwadar airports.

Senator, Sanaullah Baloch questioned the working of the ministry of Railways and inquired the minister for railways that why benefit of decrease in prices is not being transferred to commuters when fares are directly linked with the international oil prices.

The minister for Railways, Shamim Haider, admitted that passenger fares were increased by 10 percent in all classes for distances beyond 100 kilometers.

While answering a question raised by Senator Ilyas Ahmad Bilour, interior minister Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao informed the house that 6404711 computerized identity cards have been issued so far in NWFP and 260951 applications are under process in various offices of Nadra in NWFP.


Copyright Business Recorder, 2005

Hearing in Gwadar airport land case continues

ISLAMABAD (April 27 2005): The hearing into the appeals of Civil Aviation Authority and Balochistan Board of Revenue about land ownership claims of the proposed Gwadar international airport remained inconclusive on Tuesday and will be resumed on Wednesday. A full bench presided over by Justice Hamid Ali Mirza was hearing Fakhruddin G Ebrahim for the appellants when the Court rose for the day. The other two Judges are Justice Khalil-ur-Rahman Ramday and Justice Nasir-ul-Mulk.

The work on the project, which would serve as second naval base and maritime harbour on the Balochistan coast, is under an interim injunction granted by the First Bench three years ago.

The case has resulted from the claims filed by Mir Abdul Ghafoor and his clansmen, of Gwadar, about ownership of the land on which the Civil Aviation Authority proposes to build an international airport. The area already has a small airport capable of handling aircraft of Fokker class and has been in use for passenger traffic between Gwadar and Muscat-Oman as well.

The government claims that the existing airport was established by Britain's Royal Air Force during the Second World War, when the territory was under the Sultan of Oman. It was purchased by Pakistan Government in late 1950s from the then Sultan for £ 40,000 and since then the Civil Aviation Authority had been using the airstrip.

On the other hand, Mir Abdul Ghafoor has claimed that the disputed 700 acres land was part of the area gifted by the Sultan of Muscat-Oman to his grandfather which has now been "forcibly taken" by CAA. But the CAA says that the claimants had never asserted their title to the land until it finalised the plans for construction of an international airport.

The title of Mir Abdul Ghafoor and his clan was upheld by subordinate judiciary and later confirmed by Balochistan High Court.

Fakhruddin G Ebrahim, Riaz Ahmed and Tariq Rahim represented the parties to the case.


Copyright Business Recorder, 2005

so the army is building a huge base here then?