Shop owners challenge Park and Ride Plaza

Petitioners say open space land was illegally transferred from PHA to LDA.

LAHORE: A petition has been moved in the Lahore High Court challenging the establishment of the Liberty Park and Ride Shopping Plaza.

The petition was moved by Muhammad Azhar Sidduque, chairman of a law firm, and business owners Mohammad Saleem Hafeez, Mian Mohammad Haroon (Hotel MelRose Inn), Arshad Kareem Qureshi (Toy Land), Zakariya Basheer Malik, Arif Mehmood (Liberty Gift Centre) and Syed Dilawar Shah (Alnafay Shopping Mall).

The respondents include the federal and provincial governments, the Lahore Development Authority (LDA) and the Parks and Horticultural Authority (PHA).

The petitioner’s counsel submitted that the land upon which the park and ride plaza was built was an open space owned by the PHA and was illegally transferred to the LDA. He said the shops in the plaza were affecting the petitioners.

He asked the court to restore parking and other facilities to the owners of shops, offices or establishments on the same streets as Al Fatah and H Karim Bakhsh, as before the inauguration of the plaza.

They also asked the court to declare that the space was legally still owned by the PHA and that all subsequent transactions or transfers of it by any authority were without legal jurisdiction and were to be treated as nullities in law.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 23^rd,  2011.