Signal Free Corridor: Govt given time to file reply

LAHORE: Lahore High Court has given the provincial government time till March 30 to reply to petitions challenging the construction of a Signal-Free Corridor from QurtabaChowk to Liberty Chowk and composition of the Lahore Development Authority. A full bench of the LHC took up the petitions on Thursday and ordered them to be clubbed as one case. The advocate general of the Punjab sought time from the court to file a reply to the petitions after which the bench adjourned the hearing. On February 28, the court stopped the government from hewing trees on the Main Boulevard to build the Signal-Free Project. Advocate Saad Amir said the project violated several basic human rights and would adversely impact the environment. He said the government was planning to remove the green belts along both sides of the Main Boulevard for the project. He said the government had also planned to acquire private land but had not adopted a legal course in this regard.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 27^th, 2015.