Is LEW’s design being altered, court asks AAG

SHC asked the AAG Sindh to submit a report to clarify whether the design of the Lyari Expressway has been altered.

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) asked the additional advocate general (AAG) Sindh on Wednesday to submit a report to clarify whether the design of the Lyari Expressway (LEW) has been altered or not and if there were any plans to make such a move.

The two-member SHC bench led by Justice Mushir Alam was hearing a petition filed by residents of Liquatabad, including Faisal Jilani and 40 others, who informed the court that the government was altering the design of the LEW to save Hassan Aulia village.

The counsel for the petitioners told the court that his clients’ houses were built on the land that the government had acquired for the construction of LEW. However, they had not being paid for it despite the agreement that they would be compensated according to the market rate.

He asked the court that if the LEW design is being altered, then the houses of his clients could be spared from being destroyed for the project.

According to the Lyari Resettlement Project, the federal government has not provided funds for compensation according to the land’s market value.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 9^th, 2010.