Orange train: Church land will not be acquired, LHC told

Lahore commissioner gives undertaking Cathedral Church of Resurrection’s land will not be acquired

LAHORE: The Punjab government on Monday gave an undertaking before Lahore High Court (LHC) that it will not acquire any land from the Cathedral Church of Resurrection, The Mall.

The court then disposed of a petition filed by the church administration.

Earlier, the government had issued a notice to the church administration for acquiring three kanals of land to build a pumping station for the Orange Line Metro Train project. The church administration had moved the court against the notice. The management of the OLMT assured the court that it had changed its plan and would shift the pumping station to another site.

Lahore Commissioner Abdullah Khan Sumbal submitted a written undertaking before the LHC stating: “Neither the land nor the boundary wall or any other structure [of the church] is being affected by Orange Line Metro Train Project. In the initial plan, about three kanals of open land was required for a disposal station. However, in the revised plan, no land acquisition is involved as it has been decided to shift the disposal station to some other location.”

The church compound comprises 84 kanals. The building was completed in 1887.

When the petition was filed, the LHC had issued an interim stay order and stopped the project management from acquiring land. Shahid P Mehraj, dean of the church, told The Express Tribune that in a meeting with him and pastors of other churches, including St Andrew’s Church on Nabha Road, Naulakha Church on Nicholson Road, and St Paul’s Presbyterian Church, Khawaja Ahmad Hassaan had assured them that the structures of the cathedral and Naulakha churches would not be affected. “They are also trying to save the structure of the St Paul’s Church’s where they had earlier planned to set up a staircase for the elevated station of the train. Hassaan had assured us that they would restore the 1.4 kanals open land of the church after constructing an underground track of the train at this site,” he said. The administration of St Andrew’s Church had conveyed its reservations to the OLMT project manager through a written letter.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 21^st, 2016.