Lacking manpower: ‘MCL seeking local support against grabbers’

Residents claim mayor asked them to help secure officials involved in operation.

LAHORE: With Lahore Police allegedly refusing to extend support to the Metropolitan Corporation Lahore, according to senior MCL officers, the city’s mayor has reportedly asked locals to support the anti-encroachment drive to get a road vacated from the clutches of land-grabbing ‘lawyers’.

A road in Shadab Colony, Abid Market, was vacated from a three-decade long occupation late last month. However, it was again occupied by half a dozen people who locals claim are lawyers.

The MCL tried to free the land from these grabbers, but failed in their attempt. Senior officials said in order to delay the operation, the case, prepared in 60 days, was sent for a second time to land records for a legal opinion.

Police, who refused to extend cooperation to MCL staff even after a formal request, also failed to respond to calls made by residents of the street. The staff claimed that police only responded to encroachment drives in which the matter was brought to the chief minister’s notice.

They also blamed the weak local government system, adding it was entrenched with problems. They said political interference in the new MCL set up had almost paralyzed the system.

The complainant in this case, a resident of the area, said he met the Lahore Mayor Colonel (Retd) Mubasshir on Saturday to inform him about the inefficiency of his office for failing to demolish construction, despite his own orders. The mayor reportedly told the complaint to garner local support if the road was to be vacated from land grabbers.

The matter was also placed before the Lahore commissioner’s office after the meeting with the mayor. Several senior Punjab government officers were surprised by the mayor’s request. Provincial minister for law Rana Sanaullah said if the Lahore Police was not cooperating with the MCL, the mayor should have raised the matter with the Punjab government. He added the police will, and is, assisting MCL wherever needed.

Muhammad Zubair, a resident of the area, also appealed to the chief minister to take note of the matter. “How can we fight land grabbers and protect MCL staff?” He said if the corporation was afraid of taking a mere six people who had occupied the road.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 8^th, 2017.