LHC orders LDA to establish new graveyards

Lahore High Court’s (LHC) Chief Justice Muhammad Qasim Khan directed the provincial government on Thursday to establish four 50-acre graveyards at the edges of Lahore city.

The CJ said it would be the responsibility of the government to establish graveyards around the city and maintain them.

The province’s top judge expressed his displeasure over negligence of Lahore Development Authority (LDA) in acting against illegal housing societies established in green zones.

Expressing his dissatisfaction over a list of officials appointed on deputation repeatedly, the CJ directed the chief secretary to constitute a committee to look into the matter.

The chief justice was hearing a petition against construction of housing societies in green areas. Punjab Chief Secretary Jawad Rafique Malik, LDA Director General Ahmed Aziz Tarar, Cooperatives Registrar Usman Moazam and other officials were present in the courtroom.

As the proceedings commenced, the CJ came down hard on the LDA, saying a common citizen’s land was included in green area while some politicians were favoured and their land was brought into the brownfield category.

"The law is equal for all and such discriminatory treatment will not be tolerated at any cost," he observed.

He said the master plan of the city had been ruined by such illegal acts.

LDA’s senior legal adviser Sahabzada Muzafar Ali told the court that 223 housing societies had been constructed in green areas, while 241 FIRs had been registered against them.

The CJ remarked that actions were taken to show efficiency when the cases came to courts.

The chief secretary implored the court that it was the vision of Prime Minister Imran Khan that no encroachment and illegal housing societies in green areas would be tolerated.

He assured the court that now the development of no housing society would be allowed in green areas.

The top bureaucrat of the province also assured the court that action would be taken against the officials involved in letting housing societies developed in green areas.

The CJ remarked that those who had earned billions after spending millions of rupees in the name of societies should be brought to book. "No one is ready to hear the innocent people who are moving from pillar to post after purchasing plots in those societies."

The chief justice also asked why officials were appointed in the LDA on deputation.

In earlier proceedings, the CJ had barred the LDA from making any progress on an ‘amnesty scheme’ suggested by the judicial water and environment commission to give a one-time opportunity to illegal and unapproved societies to get enlisted after paying fines to bring them into the net of aquifer charges.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 5^th, 2021.