Anti-encroachment drive: Demolition squad reaches Zeenat Laboratory

CDGL says the land belongs to Punjab govt, stay order has lapsed.

LAHORE:

In its ongoing anti-encroachment operation, the City District Government of Lahore (CDGL) on Monday demolished the Zeenat Laboratory X-Ray Centre and its parking lot on 34 Lawrence Road.

Talking to The Express Tribune, Dr Mubashar Hassan said that the CDGL team had appeared without a prior notice or warning. He said it had been more than 60 years that his wife Dr Zeenat Hassan had rented the land from Colonel Dr Elahi Bukhsh, who was Quaid-i-Azam Muhammed Ali Jinnah’s last physician before his death. Dr Bukhsh’s family now lives in America, he added. He said the CDGL teams had insisted that Dr Bukhsh had not owned the land.

He said that the demolition had broken expensive X-ray equipment and destroyed rooms reserved for children’s medical tests.

He said, “Zeenat Laboratory is one of the oldest laboratories in the city. It has a collaboration with the American College of Pathologists.”

He said Dr Zeenat had put her lifes savings into establishing Dr Zeenat Hassan Foundation to promote education and health awareness.

He said that the building adjacent to the demolished laboratory had been entrusted to the charity which created in the early 1990s and included IA Rehman, Shahid Kardar, Hussain Naqi, and Abbas Rashid.

He told The Tribune that his lawyer Mian Nisar would be looking into the prospects of suing the government.

A senior CDGL official told The Tribune there was no evidence of ownership or documentation of the property. He said the land did not belong to Dr Bukhsh and was Punjab government’s property. He said that the government had issued a warning letter three weeks ago before the operation. “Zeenat Laboratory had obtained a stay order but it has expired. The CDGL had tried to re-possess the land some 5 years ago, but could not do so because of the stay order,” he said. He said the land was approximately 29 kanals and 19 marlas and worth Rs900 million. Sajid, a worker at the laboratory, said that the demolition team had destroyed everything. He said that the laboratory workers were trying to salvage whatever equipment they could.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 29^th, 2011.