The Shalimar town municipal officer (TMO) told the Lahore High Court on Monday that work on the green belt in Shadbagh Scheme-II was not part of a plan to set up a food street there, but merely a general improvement scheme.
TMO Khawar Jalil said this in an affidavit in response to a petition claiming that the trees on the green belt were being cut down to allow the construction of a food street in the area.
Jalil said that Rs6 million had been set aside to improve the 426-feet long and 45-feet wide green belt. Fences, benches and canopies would be set up, he said, but the green belt would not be used for any commercial activities and its status would be maintained.
Petitioner’s counsel Muhammad Azhar Siddique said he doubted that Rs6 million had been allocated just for improvement work. He said the government likely had a secret plan to remove the green belt.
Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed responded that removing a green belt or using park land for any other purpose was a cognisable offence under the Disposal of Land Development Regulations 1998. The TMO had filed affidavit stating that the green belt would not be removed and if it were removed the court would charge the officers responsible with contempt.
The court then adjourned the hearing for a week, directing the petitioner to submit a rejoinder to the TMO’s affidavit.
The petition was filed by a former naib nazim of the area, Hafiz Moeen Ahmad, submitting that the authorities were removing the green belt and setting up a commercial restaurant area. He said that the conversion of a designated green belt or park land was a violation of the residents’ right to a healthy environment. He asked the court to stop the plan.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 14th, 2011.
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