In the way: SC stays felling of Canal Bank trees

LDA is cutting trees even though the area was declared a heritage site.

LAHORE: The Supreme Court passed an interim stay order on Wednesday against felling of trees along the Canal as part of the Lahore Development Authority’s Canal Bank Road Widening Project.  The court directed the authorities to provide the court details about their plans at the next hearing on March 11. 

A three-judge bench of the apex court, headed by Justice Mian Saqib Nisar, was hearing a contempt petition filed by an NGO, the Lahore Bachao Tehreek. The NGO said that the government was violating a court order passed on September 15, 2011, which had declared the Lahore Branch Canal and the greenbelt on both sides of the Canal from Jallo Park to Thokar Niaz Baig a Heritage Park. Lahore Bachao Tehreek filed the contempt petition against a decision taken in a meeting of the Mediation Committee on January 27. The committee had decided to widen 3.5 kilometers of road on both sides of the Canal from Doctors’ Hospital to Thokar Niaz Beg; build an underpass at Chobacha Phatak near Dharampura; make major changes to underpasses constructed on Canal Bank Road; and build 14 U-Turns on Canal Bank Road. This involved felling of hundreds of trees, the petitioner said. Counsel for the petitioner played a video footage showing trees along the Canal being felled. However, Advocate Khawaja Haris, counsel for the LDA, said that the authority had stopped felling trees since it gave an undertaking in this regard on February 12. Advocate Aitezaz Ahsan said that the government was violating public interest through this project. He requested that the court pass an order against it.  Advocate Haris replied that the project aimed to facilitate the public. Imrana Tiwana, a representative of Lahore Bachao Tehreek, said only 7 per cent citizens of Lahore owned cars, which the government aimed to facilitate through the project. She requested the court to decide whether the project was in public interest. Lahore Bachao Tehreek was formed in 2006 to protest against the Traffic Engineering and Planning Agency’s to widen the Canal Bank Road. In 2009, the court had initiated suo motu proceedings against the project and passed an order on September 15, 2011.

The government had then filed a plea, seeking permission to widen the length of the Canal Bank Road from Dharampura to Jallo. The plea is pending before SC.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 19^th, 2015.