Lady Willingdon Hospital: Doctors’ hostel to be left alone, says govt

Petitioners’ counsel to submit comments on govt’s alternative plan today.

LAHORE:

The government informed The Lahore High Court on Monday that it would not demolish any part of Lady Willingdon Hospital’s doctors’ hostel to construct the flyover at Azadi Chowk.

Counsel for the LDA submitted an alternative plan that did not require the land required under the previous plan. Justice Abdul Sattar Asghar then directed the counsel for the petitioner to examine the alternative plan and submit a rejoinder on Tuesday (today).

The judge had told the counsel for the government at the previous hearing that the court would not let the government touch the hostel.

Earlier, the government had submitted a plan proposing the demolition of 14 structures in the hospital. Parts of Maternity Wards A and B; the kitchen; the general store; the chemicals store; and a portion of the doctors’ hostel were among those.

The Young Doctors’ Association’s counsel had said that the government had already started raising walls to isolate the areas to be demolished.

Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf leader Dr Yasmin Rashid has filed a similar petition.

They said the demolition violated not only several articles of the Constitution but also the Walled City Act 2012, Antiquities Act 1975, and Punjab Special Premises Preservation 1985.

They said the government had not carried out a mandatory environmental impact survey before starting work on the flyover.

Former MNA get bail in fake degree case

A division bench of the Lahore High Court on Monday granted bail to former Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz MNA Mudassar Qayyum Nahra, suspending a Gujranwala sessions court order sentencing him to one year in prison.

Nahra had been arrested after Gujranwala District and Sessions Judge Tariq Iftikhar awarded him a one-year-imprisonment on February 28, 2014.

On Monday, the bench, headed by Justice Shahid Hameed Dar, was hearing Nahra’s appeal against a trial court’s verdict.

The counsel for the appellant said the case against his client had been politically motivated. He claimed that the trial court had announced its decision without considering massive discrepancies in the evidence. He requested the court to set aside the trial court’s verdict and acquit his client. A law officer on behalf of the prosecution defended the trial court’s order.

The bench, however, suspended the sentence and released Nahra on bail against submission of Rs100,000 surety bond. The court also admitted his appeal against conviction for regular hearing.

Nahra had contested the 2007 general elections for an NA-100 seat as an independent candidate and defeated PML-Quaid’s Rana Bilal Ijaz, son of former MNA Rana Ijaz Ahmad, with a huge margin. He later joined the PML-N.

His electoral rival challenged his university degree in an election tribunal of the Lahore High Court.

Justice Nasir Saeed Sheikh on June 21, 2010 disqualified him and ordered fresh election in the constituency. Nahra had filed an appeal in the Supreme Court and a three-member bench, led by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, had upheld the election tribunal’s decision. The court had also ordered registration of a case against him.

On the advice of the Election Commission, the Civil Lines police registered a case against him on August 11, 2012, and also submitted charge-sheet in the sessions court. The judge recorded the statements of witnesses and awarded him a one-year-imprisonment in February. He was arrested shortly after the arrest orders.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 11^th, 2014.