Press Club plots: LDA given last chance to file reply

LHC gives last chance to LDA to file reply on petition challenging proposed conversion of park into housing area.

LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Wednesday gave a last chance to the Lahore Development Authority (LDA) on behalf of the Punjab government to file a reply on a petition challenging the proposed conversion of the park at the Lahore Press Club (LPC) Journalist Housing Scheme into a residential area to carve out plots for some 295 new members of the club.

Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed of the LHC adjourned the hearing till March 22 and ordered the LDA to produce all relevant record of the colony.

The judge during preliminary hearing on January 21 had restrained the Punjab government from converting the park into residential plots.

Earlier, the judge had remarked that a prima facie bar existed on converting the allocated land for developing a park into residential plots. An LPC member, Din Muhammad Dard, had challenged the conversion of the recreational park into a residential area. He said that the elected body of the Lahore Press Club, including its newly elected president, Sarmad Bashir, had distributed forms among new members to provide them plots in the parks, which, he said, was in violation of the law. He said according to the law if some land was allocated for developing a park, it could not be used for any other purpose. He brought the court’s attention to a 76-acres private land lying tract vacant adjacent to the housing scheme. He said the land had been proposed for Phase-II of the housing scheme and initial notification under Section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act had also been issued in May 2007.

He proposed that the aforementioned land could be acquired and used for allotment of plots to the new members.

He asked the court to declare the proposal for converting of the park into residential area as illegal.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 3^rd, 2011.