Plot ownership: LHC stays LDA action in Model Town Extension

Petitioners say LDA cancelled allotments without notice.

LAHORE:

The Lahore High Court on Monday restrained the Lahore Development Authority (LDA) from taking any coercive action against residents of Model Town Extension who have challenged the LDA’s cancellation of their allotment of plots.

Admitting several identical petitions for regular hearing, Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed issued notices to the LDA authorities and directed them to file a reply by May 4. LDA counsel Salman Mansoor was present in the court and received the notice.

Nusrat Naseem, Anjum Nazir Butt, Tariq Javed, Atif Iqbal, Muhammad Tauhid and others filed petitions stating that they had purchased plots in Model Town Extension, which the LDA had established in 1996. Later they constructed houses on the plots. They said all their property transactions were on record with the department concerned and all required dues were deposited in the name of the director of estate management at the LDA.

They said the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) had later initiated an inquiry against some LDA officers for alleged irregularities in the allotment of plots in Model Town Extension. Following the NAB inquiry, the LDA cancelled the title/ownership of their properties and started dispossessing them without notice or affording them a hearing, they said. They said the LDA, instead of taking action against its officials for committing irregularities, was taking action against them by cancelling their allotments. Demolition work was started on the properties of several residents, but they obtained stay orders from civil courts.

The petitioners submitted that the order of the LDA cancelling the ownership of their properties and subsequent actions were illegal. They asked the court to set aside the LDA orders and restrain it from taking any action against their properties.

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