Security concerns: Verdict reserved on plea against Chinese Consulate construction

Court urged to raze ‘illegal’ security wall, checkpoint

LAHORE: Lahore High Court on Tuesday reserved judgment on a petition challenging the construction of the Chinese consulate in a residential area of New Muslim Town.

Petitioner Rana Sajjad Siddique told the court that a property near his house had been “illegally” given to the consulate on rent for a price of $40,000 per month.

Rana Zulfiqar Ali Khan, the Petitioner’s counsel, said the government had started erecting an 18-feet-high and 16-inch-thick concrete security wall that covered a length of 800 feet around the property. He said the wall not only surrounded the proposed site for the consulate but also a service road and a greenbelt. Khan said the respondents had also been establishing a checkpoint in the locality that would permanently inconvenience people frequenting public roads. He said the “unlawful” checkpoint posed a threat to peoples’ lives as it could be targeted by terrorists. Khan pointed out that those living in the consulate’s vicinity had been compelled to keep their vehicles parked inside their residences as access to public roads had become restricted.

He said this had made it impossible for any large vehicle to drive in the vicinity. Khan asked the court to order the wall and the checkpoint to be razed as they were illegal structures that violated citizens’ fundamental rights.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 30^th, 2015.