LHC withdraws stay order at speaker’s plea

LHC allowed the government to use Baba Ground as a parking lot for Civil Secretariat.

LAHORE: The Lahore High Court on Friday allowed the government to use Baba Ground as a parking lot for Civil Secretariat and the sessions court staff as well as visitors to these places.

The court had earlier granted a stay order in favour of the Punjab University (PU), which claims that the land was allotted to it in the 1950s to be used as a playground. The stay order was vacated at the request of the provincial assembly speaker.

In his application the speaker said the land belonged to the provincial assembly and that it had allowed the government to use it as a parking facility in view of the terrorism threat to the secretariat and the sessions court.

An additional advocate general – Chaudhry Zubair Khalid – had earlier informed the court that the land was allotted to the assembly in 1986.

Advocate Shahzad Shaukat, representing PU, however, opposed this contention saying that in year the 1986 the assembly had forcibly taken possession of the ground but the title to the land remained with the university.

He said the ground was originally allotted to the Oriental Law College in 1920. The college later became the PU Law College. Law Officer Khalid said that the possession of the ground remained with the university.

After hearing the arguments, Justice Mansoor Ali Shah allowed use of the ground as a parking lot and directed the Punjab Assembly to furnish documents showing ownership of the land by the first week
of September.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 21^st, 2010.