ISLAMABAD: Justice Faez Isa of the Supreme Court on Friday heard the petition pertaining to “illegal” acquisition of citizens’ land for development projects without paying compensation money by the government. The judge remarked, “Earlier we used to hear about land mafias but now in this case government has become a ‘qabza group’ itself.” The court, while rejecting the provincial government’s appeal plea against the Peshawar High Court’s decision, has ordered the payment of compensation money to the citizens within a week. The citizens’ land occupation case came up for hearing before the SC on Friday. A two-member bench headed by Justice Qazi Faez Isa took up the case. During the course of hearing, Additional Advocate General (AAG) Umar Adam on behalf of the KP government appeared before the court and took the plea that this case doesn’t fall within the jurisdiction of civil court, adding that the petitioner should have approached the collector instead of filing petition in civil court. He prayed to the court to set aside the verdict of Peshawar High Court, declaring it unconstitutional. Justice also inquired why compensation money was not paid to citizens after awarding land from 1995 till now. According to law, no one can be deprived of his land. The civil judge has issued an ex-parte decree against which KPK government approached High Court. The high court also maintains the decision of civil court to dismiss the government’s appeal. The apex court, while dismissing the appeal of provincial government against Peshawar High Court decision, has directed provincial government to pay compensation money to citizens within one week.