Orange Line: LHC tells govt to allay citizens’ concerns

Attorney general grilled on heritage preservation, transparency

LAHORE:

Lahore High Court (LHC) on Thursday remarked that it seemed that legalities had been dispensed with in connection with the Orange Line Metro Train (OLMT) project since its inception.

Heading a division bench hearing several petitions on the aforementioned matter, Justice Abid Aziz Sheikh said the provisions of the Punjab Procurement Rules (PPR) had not been adhered with. Justice Sheikh said it seemed that rules were there to be trampled upon. The judge made the remarks while questioning the alleged noncompliance with PPR rules when the project was assigned to the NESPAK which formulated its feasibility report in January, 2014.

As the hearing commenced, Advocate General (AG) Shakeelur Rehman started quoting from the feasibility report on the project by MVA Asia Limited. As the AG continued, Justice Sheikh said the report had nothing to do with the case. He said he did not know why the government had been banking on the report.

The judge said the government should address concerns regarding its plans to save heritage sites, the environment and transparency. Justice Sheikh asked how the Nespak had formulated its feasibility report before being tasked with the study by the government.  The judge also asked how the Nespak had engaged the services of a Chinese company to execute the project on its own accord.

The AG said these were questions that the federal government could furnish responses to. He said some of these he wanted to answer with reference to the MVA report. The AG said he wanted to conclude on the project’s cost after quoting the report.

At this, Justice Sheikh said it was not in the court’s domain to look into the project’s expenses. He said the court only wanted to ascertain whether everything had been executed in accordance with the law. He said it was up to lawmakers to look into expenses.

Adjourning the proceedings till Friday (today), the court asked the AG to present answers on heritage, environment and transparency concerns. However, the AG requested the court to let him quote some excerpts from the MVA report. The bench told him that it had been hearing the report time and again over the past three months. It told the AG that the government should inform the court to allay heritage, environment and transparency concerns.

In conclusion, Justice Sheikh said the AG should at the very least present a list of the issues raised in connection with the project even if he did not want to answer them.

The court was hearing a petition filed by Kamil Khan Mumtaz among others. Through their counsel Muhammad Azhar Siddique, the petitioners had submitted that various historic sites were being razed in connection with the project. They said the government had failed to adhere with legalities before initiating the project. The petitioners had requested the court to declare it illegal and unconstitutional. 

Published in The Express Tribune, May 6^th, 2016.