PESHAWAR:
The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Monday suspended a demolition notice issued by the district administration against the residence and hujra of a female lawyer, ruling that the property had been wrongfully declared within the boundaries of a river. The court also sought detailed replies from the Deputy Commissioner Peshawar and other relevant authorities.
A two-member bench, comprising Justice Sahibzada Asadullah and Justice Khurshid Iqbal, was hearing a writ petition filed by Advocate Ambreen Gulzar. Her legal counsels, Advocates Aminur Rahman Yousafzai and Syed Taimoor Ali Shah, argued that the district administration had wrongfully marked their client’s five-kanal property in Haji Zai on the outskirts of Peshawar as an encroachment along the riverbank and issued a fresh demolition notice.
The lawyers informed the court that a similar notice had previously been withdrawn after an official inquiry found the property to be outside the river’s designated limits. Despite this, the administration issued another notice without any new assessment.
