Doongi Ground: Contempt plea against government to be heard in last week of November

Petitioner says govt violated court orders and land use laws in construction work at public park.

LAHORE:

The Lahore High Court has accepted a plea for the early hearing of a contempt case against the Punjab government and others for undertaking construction work at the Doongi Ground on MM Alam Road and scheduled it for the last week of November.

The counsel for the petitioner, appearing before Justice Nasir Saeed Sheikh on Tuesday, submitted that no proceedings had been held on the case for a month. He said it was an important case and should be heard soon.

The petitioner, Gulberg resident Ahmed Imran Ghazi, has accused the government of undertaking construction work at the Doongi Ground in violation of zoning laws and without getting the requisite approvals.

He said that an LHC full bench had on September 16, 2011, declared a project to build a cinema and other facilities at the ground to be illegal. But the provincial government had ignored the instructions and restarted development work at the ground. On October 4, 2012, he said, he sent them a legal notice restraining construction work in view of the LHC judgement, but it was ignored, he said. He then moved a contempt plea against the government before the court of Justice Sheikh.



While the petition was pending, he said, the government speeded up construction of a massive parking plaza at the site.

The petitioner argued that the construction work was not just a violation of the court’s orders, but it was undertaken without any attempt to get approval or even inform the area’s residents. No feasibility report was conducted, nor an environmental impact assessment report, he said.

The LHC had in written orders issued on June 20, 2011, clearly stated that the ground was a public park and the government had attempted to convert it to other purposes in violation of the Disposal of Land by Development Authorities Act of 1988.

The petitioner said that the construction work at the site should be stopped, any structure put up there torn down, and the ground returned to the residents of the area to play sports in.

Contempt plea moved against DSP

The Lahore High Court on Tuesday issued a contempt of court notice to Sangla Hill DSP Riasat Bajwa for allegedly raiding a citizen’s house despite court orders against any such move.

Petitioner Muhammad Rafiq told the court that the police had started to harass him and his family after his son Naeem had been accused of murder. He said that rather than make an honest effort to find Naeem, police conducted multiple raids at his house, even though the accused did not live there.

Rafiq said he then approached the LHC, which restrained the police from harassing him and his family. But DSP Riasat Bajwa and a Crimes Investigation Agency (CIA) team raided his house again, damaged furniture and harassed his family. He asked the court to charge the officer with contempt.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 6^th, 2013.