PESH AWAR: Peshawar High Court has reject a contempt plea filed by 160 forest royalty-holders against several government officers accusing them of not implementing its earlier judgement delivered around five years ago for provision of royalty to them on basis of net-sale of timber and not on pre-fixed rates.

A bench consisting of Justice Sabitullah Khan and Justice Salahud Din observed that the respondents had averred in their comments that in the light of judgement of the court,the managing director of Forest Development Corporation (FDC) had already constituted a highlevel committee to determine and work out details of royalty amount to be paid to the petitioners.

`Since it was a lengthy process, being a matter of 35 years, therefore, the scrutiny of record would obviously consume sufficient time,` the bench observed, adding that incompliance with directives of the court, the respondent No.1 (managing director of FDC) had also submitted several progressreportsinrespect to calculation of royalty amount to be disbursed amongst the petitioners.

The bench pointed out that two other respondents, commissioner of Malakand division and deputy commissioner of Dir Upper, submitted their joint comments whereby they deposed thatthey being disbursing authorities, whenever received royalty amount from FDC would disburse the same among the royalty holders, in the light of directions of the court.

`Since respondents have taken some decisive steps qua implementation of the judgement of this court, therefore, at the moment, no case for contempt of court proceedings has been made out against respondents/contemnors,` the bench ruled.

The contempt petition was filed by Mohammad Baqi and 159 other royaltyholders belonging to Barikot area of Kalkot tehsil of Dir Upper district against seven government officers including secretaries of finance and home departments, chief conservator of forests, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, managing director of FDC, commis-sioner of Malakand, deputy commissioner of Dir Upper and assistant commissioner of Dir Upper.

The petitioners stated that they were local right holders of village Barikot and were entitled to receive 60 per cent of the royalty of different lots of forests under the KOP Management of Forest Rules, 1975.

They said that their representatives and FDC had entered into an agreement on Aug 30, 1980, under which for different lots of forests FDC would extract harvested timber up to Dec 31, 1983 on the basis of pre-fixed formula.

They claimed that after the expiry of the agreement of 1980, the respondents continued felling and harvesting of timber but denied payment of royalty to them on net-sale formula.

The petitioners statedthat they challenged the matter before the high court in 2014, which decided it in their favour on Sep 8, 2020, declaring the petitioners entitled to recovery of their share of royalty in accordance with a relevant notification of March 14, 1977, from the period Jan 1, 1984, till 1994.

They said that the court had directed that the quantum of amount of royalty should be determined by the respondents in accordance with the documents in their possession within 60 days of receipt of the judgement.

They alleged that they had approached the respondents several times for implementation of the said judgement but in vain.

They had requested the court to award punishment to the respondents under the contempt of court law and also direct them toimplement the said judgement.

Advocate Asghar Ali appeared for the respondents and stated that the judgement of the high court had already been challenged by FDC through its managing director in Supreme Court of Pakistan.

He said that FDC managing director had already constituted a committee through an order on June 3, 2021, to work out the detail of royalty/volume of timber marked in the light of the court`s judgement.

He added that considerable time would be required to work out details of royalty from old record maintained on prefixed mode in operation as well as marketing wings which needed proper scrutiny and reconciliation of figures to avoid over payment and complications at later stages.