Punjab Journalist Housing Foundation: Govt seeks time before committing

Judge asks AAG to give an undertaking that another park will be developed.

LAHORE:

The Lahore High Court on Thursday directed the Punjab Journalist Housing Foundation (PJHF) to submit a written undertaking that the recreational park in the Lahore Press Club (LPC) housing scheme would be developed on other land if it made residential plots on the land it had earlier proposed for the park.

Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed told Assistant Advocate General (AAG) Shan Gull that he would dispose of the petition if he gave the undertaking in court. However, the AAG sought time till June 6 to submit the undertaking.

The petition filed by journalist Din Muhammad Dard, questioning the conversion of land meant for a recreational park into a residential area, submitted that the LPC had distributed forms among members offering them plots in the land meant for the park, thus violating the master plan and the law.

The AAG argued that the park of the LPC housing scheme would be shifted to adjacent land and that the petition was inaccurate when it implied that that the park was being eliminated.

He argued that in all the Supreme Court decisions barring the conversion of park land cited by the petitioner, the parks already existed and were in public use.

In all the cases, the conversion of the parks was not duly approved by the authorities concerned.

He said the present case was entirely different from the cases cited by the petitioner, as the park in question had not yet been developed nor had the public started using it.

He said the PJHF had decided to shift the under-construction park to nearby land which could not be used for residential purposes.

On the petitioner’s plea, the court sought replies from those respondents who had not responded to the court.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 20^th, 2011.