Court denies stay order against digging up road

LHC rejects plea for stay order against digging up road behind Liberty Park and Ride Shopping Plaza.

LAHORE: The Lahore High Court on Wednesday rejected a plea to issue a stay order against digging up the road behind the Liberty Park and Ride Shopping Plaza potentially for establishing a food street.

Advocate Muhammad Azhar Siddique had filed the application as part of his already pending petition challenging the construction of the Liberty Park and Ride Shopping Plaza. The judge rejected the request for a stay order but fixed the hearing of the main case for March 4.

The petition against the plaza has been moved by seven petitioners including Muhammad Azhar Sidduque, chairman of a law firm, shop owners Mohammad Saleem Hafeez, Mian Mohammad Haroon of Hotel MelRose Inn, Arshad Kareem Qureshi of Toy Land, M Zakariya Basheer Malik, Arif Mehmood of Liberty Gift Centre and Syed Dilawar Shah of Alnafay Shopping Mall.

The petitioners submitted that the land was owned by the Punjab Horticulture Authority and had been illegally transferred to the Lahore Development Authority for the construction of this plaza. According to the petitioners, the shops in the Liberty Park and Ride Plaza would also adversely affect the petitioners’ businesses.

They had requested that the court declare the property to be in the ownership and control of the Punjab Horticulture Authority and that all subsequent transactions or transfers be declared void.

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