National heritage: Construction of commercial buildings in Walled City stayed

Chief justice orders steps to preserve imambargah at Kashmiri Gate

LAHORE: Lahore High Court (LHC) Chief Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah on Monday stayed the construction of commercial buildings in the Walled City of Lahore.

The chief justice ordered that steps be taken to preserve an imambargah at Kashmiri Gate. A plaza is being constructed in front of the imambargah. He asked the officials concerned at the Walled City of Lahore Authority (WCLA) to explain how such construction could be allowed in the Walled City, a heritage area.

Justice Shah expressed dismay over laws not being promulgated with regard to construction activities in the Walled City.

He adjourned until September 26 the hearing of petitions by Asif Ali Mirza and Abdul Razzak, residents of the Walled City, and Judicial Activism Panel chairman Muhammad Azhar Siddique against the construction of multi-storey commercial buildings in the area in violation of a stay order.

Siddique had submitted that the court had already stayed the construction of 136 multi-storey buildings identified by the WCLA but work on those had not stopped.

He said the WCLA was responsible for preserving the Walled City, a national heritage, and that it had lodged FIRs against the 136 developers.

He said the developers, most of them residents of the area, had obtained permission from the town municipal administration to resume construction. He said the Lahore Development Authority, too, was responsible as it had approved new building plans in the area.

Siddique submitted that the unlawful construction of a plaza had damaged the walls of the 200-year-old imambargah at Kashmiri Gate. He said the structure of the imambargah might be further damaged if the construction activities were not stopped.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 26^th, 2016.