‘Is Lady Willingdon Hospital here to stay?’

A stay order has been granted against demolition of a part of the building.

LAHORE: The Lady Willingdon Hospital will remain an obstacle to construction work on Azadi Chowk Interchange, at least till February 12.

Last week, the Lahore High Court extended the stay order against the demolition of a portion of the hospital falling in way of the project till that date.

Buildings on both sides of Ravi Road, from Timber Market to Taxali Chowk, are being demolished except for the hospital building. Authorities have, however, dismantled billboards from the hospital’s premises and removed the pavement next to the hospital’s boundary.

The order was issued on a petition by the Young Doctors’ Association against the planned demolition of the hospital.

Although the authorities have planned to acquire two kanals and 11 marlas of the hospital’s land (a mosque and washrooms have been built on the area), the court had granted a stay order considering the alleged contravention of law.

The stay was first granted on January 30 by Justice Ijaz Ahmed Chaudhry.

It was extended by Justice Abdul Sattar Asghar on February 6 who has also issued notices to the relevant authorities for reply and comments.

The Young Doctors’ Association and Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf leader Dr Yasmin Rashid had filed petitions saying the government planned to demolish a portion of the hospital for the Minar-i-Pakistan Interchange project. They said the demolition contravened Articles 14, 10-A, 9, 24, 23, 19-A, 16, 15 and 25-A of the Constitution. They said the hospital had been constructed on 120 kanals 83 years ago.

A United States Agency for International Development team had shown interest in upgrading the hospital but the government had shown no concern in this regard, a petition said.

Electricity

Last week, the LHC directed the Ministry of Water and Power to present an audit report on Rs480 billion payments to private power producers.

The LHC had asked for an audit report by the auditor general of Pakistan and a private auditor. The court also sought policy details to control theft.

Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial observed that the government wasn’t apparently putting much effort into controlling theft. The hearing was adjourned till February 21.

The petitioner said citizens were facing a lot of problems due to prolonged electricity load shedding.

Taliban factor

Dialogue between the government and the militant outfit remains a hot topic. The LHC took up the matter on a petition, which the LHC registrar’s office had objected to. It was admitted for regular hearing on the chief justice’s directive.

Advocate Kashif Solomany had nominated the federation of Pakistan, the Interior Ministry, the Ministry of Defence and the Ministry of Finance as respondents in the petition. He said surgical strikes against the Taliban without first holding talks with them would be counteproductive to peace.

He said the respondents should be directed to hold dialogue in order to ensure peace in the country.

He said Pakistan had lost 49,000 people in the war against terror since 9/11 and more than 24,000 civilians and troops had been killed in attacks between 2001 and 2008.

“The armed forces have lost 15,681 men fighting the Taliban militants in Tribal Areas since 2008. Some 5,152 civilians had been killed and 5,678 injured in bomb blasts and suicide attacks since 2008,” the petitioner said.

Setting up a Taliban office would facilitate dialogue, he said. “Our leaders should give dialogue a chance to deal with issue of extremism in the interest of peace,” he said.

“According to the Charter of United Nations Organisation, no sanctions could be imposed on Pakistan for dialogue with Taliban.”

Published in The Express Tribune, February 10^th, 2014.