Infrastructure project: AGP gets a day to defend confidentiality of Orange Line agreement

LAHORE: Lahore High Court has asked the attorney general of Pakistan to present his arguments on why an agreement between the federal government and the Chinese government on the Orange Line Metro Train project was being treated as a classified document at the next hearing of the case on Tuesday (today).

The directive was issued by a division bench, comprising Justice Abid Aziz Sheikh and Justice Shahid Karim, hearing multiple petitions against the metro train project on Monday.

Earlier Attorney General Ashtar Ausaf and Advocate General Punjab Shakilur Rehman sought time to deliberate on the matter.

During the hearing, Advocate Azhar Siddique told the bench that one of the petitioners, Dr Ijaz Anwar, was facing harassment by the police apparently at the behest of the government. The bench directed the advocate general to look into matter and ensure protection of the petitioner. The bench also asked the law officer to submit a report on the news of a property dealer’s suicide over not getting paid any compensation for his land acquired for the project.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 10^th, 2016.