Metro Train: Residents protest land acquisition

LAHORE: Several residents of Kapoorthala House, Old Anarkali, have filed a petition in Lahore High Court (LHC) against the acquisition of their properties for the Orange Line Metro Train project. Amjad Hassan Bhatti and others have filed the petition through Advocate Azhar Siddique submitting that acquisition of the properties was in violation of fundamental rights protected in the Constitution. Justice Shahid Karim will take up the petition on Friday (today). The petitioners said the government was acquiring a lot of land. They accused the government of starting a useless project at their cost. They said a major portion of the General Post Office (GPO) and parts of Shalimar Gardens and Chauburji were being dismantled. They also said the authorities had not fulfilled the legal requirements for acquiring the land.They also requested to the court to strike down Sections 4, 5, 5-A, 17 of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894, for being repulsive to various provisions of the Constitution. They requested that acquisition of land, transfer of funds and actions in pursuit of the project be suspended.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 20^th, 2015.