MANSEHRA: Residents of Ghanool area in Kaghan Valley here on Saturday demanded market rate for their land acquired for the proposed tourism hub.

`The government has acquired around 500 kanals of our land for the development of a tourism hub and set their price much lower than the market rate, which is not acceptable to us at all,` resident Sajjadul Hameed told reporters.

Accompanied by a group of people from Patrang area in Ghanool, Mr Hameed said owners won`t sell their land unless the government paid the market price.

`This beautiful and naturally enriched land is our primary source of income through agriculture, but the government imposed Section-IV in 2022 and has now moved to Section-IX, yet we have not receivedany payments,` he said.

Mr Hameed said under its tourism exploration initiative, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government had acquired the land but had fixed prices far below the market rate.

`This area is as valuable as Shogran and Naran`s commercial lands, but the amount we are being offered is nothing more than a throwaway price, which is unacceptable,` he said.

Another local resident, Syed Maroof Shah, said that landowners had been protesting against the low prices set by the government since Section IV was imposed.

`How is it possible for us to give away our fertile agricultural land for Rs275,000 per kanal while barren or mountainous pieces are being priced at Rs140,000 per kanal which is unjust,` he said.

Mr Shah emphasised that they were not against the creation of a tourism hub but the prices fixed by the government were much lower than those in nearby tourist spots.

`We will launch protests against this injustice if the government does not revise the fixed rates within a week,` he warned.

MADRESSAH REGISTRATION:Wafaqu1 Madaris Al-Arabia Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief nazim Maulana Hussain Ahmad has said the government should legislate to register seminaries imparting theology and contemporary education in the province.

`Our [madressahs`] role in imparting free education and even provid-ing sustenance to both men and women is highly significant in the country,including this province, so we have been advocating for the registration of seminaries under the Societies Registration Act, 1860,` Mr Ahmad told reporters here on Saturday.

Accompanied by the divisional head of Wafaqu1Madaris Al-Arabia in Hazara Maulana Habibur Rehman and district head Maulana Nasir Mehmood, Mr Hussain said women made up half of the candidates in the recent seminary exams across the province.

`Around 75,000 candidates sat the exams in the remote districts of Upper and Lower Kohistan, Kolai-Palas and Torghar, with half of them being women,` he said.

The cleric said the peacefulstruggle for seminary registration got a breakthrough as parliamentpassed the Seminary Registration Bill.

He said the KP governmentshould follow suit and implement that law in the province.

Mr Hussain complained that the seminaries, imparting both Islamicand modern formal education, were unfairly labelled as nurseries of religious fundamentalism and terrorism.

He said a delegation of the Wafaqu1 Madaris Al-Arabia recently visited Afghanistan and urged the Taliban government to lift the ban on women`s education.