Rule of law: Chief minister asked to deal with 17-year-old land allotment claims

Court also directs action against LDA, BoR officers for their failure to comply with court orders


Our Correspondent April 29, 2015
PHOTO: EXPRESS

LAHORE: Lahore High Court on Tuesday directed the chief minster to inquire into the claims of petitioners including a mosque committee president in a 17-year-old petition seeking directives for the Lahore Development Authority to allot land to compensate them for their lands acquired for the widening of Lytton Road.

The court asked Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif to ensure that no one with a genuine claim was deprived of allotment of land in lieu of their land acquired by the authority 17 years ago.

The chief minister was also asked to take action against the LDA director general and the Board of Revenue senior member for their failure to respond to various court summons and submit satisfactory responses in the petition.

In the petition submitted before the court in 1998, petitioners including Jamia Masjid Jamiatul Quresh committee president Sheikh Anwar Saeed had accused the LDA of demolishing shops and a mosque to make way for the widening of Lytton Road in Chauburji area. They had sought court directives for the authority to compensate them for with land in another area of the city.

The verdict issued on Tuesday gave the chief minister four months to resolve the matter. It said the petition had earlier been disposed of twice after the LDA had assured the court in writing that the petitioners’ grievances would be addressed. However, the authority had failed to act on its undertakings.

In the verdict issued on Tuesday, Justice Shujaat Ali Khan noted that the responses submitted by the LDA were contradictory. He observed that in one of its responses the authority had claimed that the petitioners were encroachers and, therefore, could not legally claim the land acquired by the authority. However, he said, in another response the LDA had told the court that funds had been deposited with the Board of Revenue for purchase of land to be distributed among the petitioners.

“If the LDA thinks that the petitioners are not entitled to any compensation or allotment of alternative land, it should have straightway declined their requests. There was no need to deposit any amount with the Board of Revenue,” the verdict said.

It criticised the LDA for not cooperating with the court and said that such behaviour could not be tolerated. It said government officials were required to facilitate adjudication of all matters pending hearing in courts of law.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 29th, 2015.

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