Historical buildings: NESPAK contests LHC verdict on Orange Line

Right of citizens cannot be held hostage

ISLAMABAD: The National Engineering Services Pakistan (Nespak) on Saturday challenged the Lahore High Court’s (LHC) verdict permanently barring the Punjab government from carrying out construction work for the Orange Line Metro Train project near historical and protected buildings in Lahore.

Nespak, along with China Railway Engineering Consulting Group, was appointed as consultant of the project by the Punjab Mass Transit Authority on October 20 last year.

The appeal challenging the LHC verdict was filed in the Supreme Court by Shahid Hamid advocate on behalf of Nespak.

According to the appeal, the high court has erred in ignoring and disregarding the national and international “expertise, experience and status of the appellant  (Nespak), which has expertise in many fields of engineering, economic development, including water resources, agriculture and energy”.

Nespak further contended that the high court had also made a mistake by refusing to accept its report titled ‘Vibration Analysis of Viaduct Evaluation of Effects on Heritage Buildings’, in which it was established that there would be no danger to any of the five heritage buildings either during construction of viaducts or during operation of the electric train.

It also contended that the constitutional right of 250,000-500,000 citizens of Lahore could not be held hostage to the apprehension that there may be damage to antiquity properties.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 20^th, 2016.