Public welfare: Orange Line plans, land records summoned

Advocate Azhar Siddique said the cost of the project was more than Rs250 billion, and not Rs160 billion as claimed


Our Correspondent April 25, 2016
Construction site of Orange Line Metro Train. PHOTO: NNI

LAHORE:


A Lahore High Court (LHC) division bench directed the provincial government on Monday to submit the PC-I (project charter) documents and the complete record of land acquired for the Orange Line Metro Train project.


Earlier, Advocate General Shakilur Rehman Khan stated that the scheme was a public welfare project that had been started after fulfilling legal requirements.

Representing the civil society and other petitioners, Advocate Azhar Siddique said that three PC-Is had been prepared but the government had presented only one of these. He said the cost of the project was more than Rs250 billion, and not Rs160 billion as claimed.

He said the payments made by the government for the acquisition of land should be included in the cost of the project. The bench, consisting of Justice Abid Aziz Sheikh and Justice Shahid Karim, directed the government to submit within a week the record of all PC-I documents and of land acquired for the project.

The bench then adjourned the hearing until Tuesday (today). It directed the petitioners’ counsel to come up with arguments on laws relating to the protection of heritage sites. The bench has already stayed construction within 200-foot of 11 heritage sites, including Shalimar Garden, Chauburji, the GPO and the Mauj Darya shrine.

The petitioners had claimed that the project had not been approved by the Provincial Assembly.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 26th, 2016.

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