ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court will announce on Friday (today) its much-awaited judgement on the multi-billion Orange Line Metro Train (OLMT) project, almost eight months after closing the hearing on it in April.

The verdict will be announced by a five-judge larger bench comprising Justices Ejaz Afzal Khan, Sheikh Azmat Saeed, Maqbool Baqar, Ijaz-ul-Ahsan and Mazhar Alam Khan Miankhel.

The bench had taken up identical petitions filed by the Punjab government, National Engineering Services Pakistan (Nespak), Punjab Mass Transit Authority, Lahore Development Authority and Civil Society Network against the Aug 19, 2016 Lahore High Court judgement suspending construction work on OLMT within 200 feet of 11 heritage sites. The order was issued on a petition filed civil society activist Kamil Khan Mumtaz.

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The heritage sites include Shalamar Gardens, Gulabi Bagh Gateway, Buddhu ka Awa, Chauburji, Zebunnisa’s Tomb, Lakshmi Building, General Post Office, Aiwan-i-Auqaf, Supreme Court’s Lahore registry building, St Andrews Presbyterian Church on Nabha Road and Baba Mauj Darya Bukhari’s shrine.

The scope of civil works involves construction of a metro train corridor (27.1km), including elevated U-shaped viaduct (25.4km), underground section (1.72km), 26 stations (24 elevated and two underground), depots and stabling yards.

Those opposing the mass transit project had argued before the Supreme Court that the scheme threatened the national monuments and heritage sites which were an insight into the past glory of their structural, cultural, sculptural artistic and archeological skills. They pleaded that the construction phase vibration was more of a threat than operation phase vibration since the magnitude of the vibration was greater. Besides, they added, the construction phase vibration distances were inaccurate which meant the actual vibration levels were far greater than those calculated by Nespak and verified by Typsa Asian consultants.

They said these heritage sites were of national importance governed by the Constitution and national laws, including the Antiquity Act 1975, the Punjab Special Premises (Preservation) Ordinance 1985 and the Punjab Heritage Foundation Act 2005. These are also of international significance keeping in mind the Unesco Convention on the Protection of World Cultural and Heritage 1972, through which different historical monuments and sites of Pakistan have been placed on the world heritage list and the Rome Statute of 1998.

On the other hand, the Punjab government had in its petition argued that under the commercial contract, it and its agencies were under obligation to hand over civil works to the Chinese contractor within 10 months of the commencement date of the contract and that the contracts for construction of civil works of the OLMT project was time bound and, therefore, their completion within the stipulated time was essential.

In case of failure, the Chinese contractor would be entitled to recover liquidated damages at a rate of 0.02 per cent of the contract price of civil works, the petition said.

“OLMT is being financed by Chinese Exim Bank and the smooth and continuing availability of these funds is dependent upon timely completion of the various stages of the project,” the petition highlighted.

The petitioners had argued that Lahore being the second largest urban centre in the country suffered routinely from extreme congestion, long commute times, choking air pollution, deadly traffic accidents and inadequate public transport.

Published in Dawn, December 8th, 2017