Counter-offensive: Building owner moves court against FIR

Says only policemen, LDA officials need to be prosecuted.

LAHORE:

The owner of the building in Johar Town, where four labourers died and several were injured in a demolition by the Lahore Development Authority (LDA) on Friday, filed a petition in the Lahore High Court (LHC) on Monday against the LDA and the police for registering a case against him and his son. He requested the court to cancel the FIR and order registration of a case against LDA and police staff involved in the operation.

The petitioner, Mian Shahid Mahmood, submitted that the building collapsed during the LDA’s ‘thoughtless’ anti-encroachment drive.

He said that while the police had registered a case on the application of LDA director (administration) against five LDA officials, responsible in a departmental inquiry, they had also nominated him and his son, Faizan Shahid, in ‘violation of the order of the sessions court.’ He said that the sessions court had earlier directed the police to register a case against the relevant LDA officials, the superintendent of police, the deputy superintendent and the station house officer concerned. He said that the court had also ordered the police not to implicate him or any of his relatives in the FIR, but they still did.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 27^th, 2011.