Public property: Road cleared by LMC encroached again by ‘lawyers’

Local residents say police reluctant to take action against encroachers

LAHORE: Posing as lawyers, a gang of land grabbers illegally occupied a road which Lahore Metropolitan Corporation (LMC) had recently cleared of encroachers.

More than 10 people reached the spot with masons and got erected a wall, giving the impression that it was part of an adjoining house. After constructing the wall, the “lawyers” placed their boards, with the name of a Supreme Court Advocate atop.

A link road of Shadad Colony, connecting to main Temple Road in Abid Market, the biggest electronic market in the province, was cleared following the orders of Lahore Mayor Colonel (retd) Mubasshir Javed. Initially, the road was encroached upon by residents of the neighbourhood who had turned it into a garage dump.

The operation was carried out on April 22 by the Lahore Metropolitan Corporation which demolished several other encroachments alongside the road. The news was aired on the same day by the local channels reporting that the Metropolitan Corporation has cleared the encroachments over land worth over Rs100 million.

The operation, which continued for another two days, came to a grinding halt when a group of lawyers intervened after obtaining a stay order from the court. Surprisingly, despite obtaining the stay order on April 24, the lawyers got the wall erected on the road. Several calls were made to the local police and defunct Data Gunj Bask town, but  to no avail.

Station House Officer Malik Irfan told locals to approach the court and file a contempt case against the encroachers, while police refused to extend any sort of support to the Metropolitan Corporation in conducting the operation. The operation eventually continued without the police after several weeks of delay. Local residents said SP Civil initially had assured them police would hold a separate inquiry into the matter, but later backed out.

Interestingly, Data Gunj Baskh Town Regulation Officer Shehzad Qureshi had been instructed by Metropolitan Officer Regulation Ali Abass Bukhari to proceed against the encroacher, but no action has been taken thus far.

Lawyers have also placed a board on the illegally constructed wall on the road bearing names of the lawyers including Advocate Supreme Court Chaudary Muhammad Khalid, Advocate Zeeshan, Advocate Jawad Farhat, Advocate Waqas, Advocate Sajjad, Advocate Saleem Advocate Hassan. However, Advocate Khalid, while speaking to The Express Tribune, refused any connection with the encroachment.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 4^th, 2017.