Food street: Govt barred from cutting trees

Court directs Parks and Horticulture Authority to file report on the matter.

LAHORE:

The Lahore High Court on Friday restrained the provincial government from cutting trees on a green belt in Shadbagh to clear the land to set up a food street. Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed directed the Parks and Horticulture Authority to file a report on the matter on May 20.

Petitioner Hafiz Moeen Ahmad through his counsel, Muhammad Azhar Siddique, argued that the cutting of trees and use of the land as a food street was in violation of a Supreme Court directive about green spaces.

He said parks and green belts were amenity plots and were needed to maintain a healthy environment. He said that cutting of trees in Shadbagh Scheme-II and conversion of the public space into a food street was in violation of fundamental rights as well as the Local Government Ordinance of 2001.



Published in The Express Tribune, May 14^th, 2011.