LAHORE, Jan 11 Demolition of illegal multi-storey structures is in full swing in the city but there is little progress on the payment of compensation to the affected people, Dawn has learnt.

Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif had announced soon after launching the campaign to dismantle the illegal structures that the interests of widows, orphans and the middle-class would be safeguarded who had been duped into purchasing shops in these plazas and were kept in the dark about such properties' status.

Later, Punjab law and parliamentary affairs minister Rana Sanaullah Khan had also said the rights of middle and lower-middle classes would be protected at all costs during the ongoing action against illegal plazas where the builders' mafia sold out properties to the poor victims without informing them about the illegalities committed by the owners.

The minister pledged the government would protect the investment of the common man by making the mafia people refund their instalments. Enactment of a law in this respect was also being considered, he said, and added that the chief minister had constituted a high-level committee for deciding compensation for the people who had no source of income except the property which turned out to be an illegal construction.

“Ironically, the committee has yet to submit its recommendations to the chief minister as it could not hold even a single meeting so far, which means no concrete step is in the offing to compensate the affected people,” said Lahore Conservation Society (LCS) Information Secretary Dr Ajaz Anwar on Monday, reiterating the demand that the developers of illegal plazas should be made to cough up the amounts they had swindled out of people's savings.

The Lahore Development Authority (LDA) and the City District Government Lahore (CDGL) should also take measures to stop the on-going construction of illegal structures in the Punjab capital, he said.

“Construction work is under way at the sites that were either not visited by the high-rise commission, set up by the Supreme Court, and the special inspection team of the chief minister or the activity started after recommendations of the both bodies were finalised (Urdu Bazaar, McLeod, Nicholson, Gulberg, Shah Alam Market, Rang Mahal, Ravi and Ferozpur roads),” said the conservationist. He said a commercial plaza had started emerging at the site of an over three-century-old Imam Bargah that was razed recently in violation of a ban imposed by Punjab government on demolishing or altering the status of any historical building in the Walled City.

Extending whole-hearted support to the on-going operation against illegal plazas on behalf of the LCS, the Lahore Bachao Tehrik and the Shajjar Dost, Dr Ajaz also sought exemplary action against the LDA and CDGL officials concerned as completion of illegal parts of a multi-storey structure was not possible without their abetment.

“An official of the LDA or the CDGL would come within an hour or so if you put some bricks and a bag of sand outside your premises. How can construction of a multi-storey building be completed without the abetment of LDA or CDGL officials concerned? The officials also helped the builders in selling and booking flats, offices and shops in many cases.

“Widows, orphans and pensioners are among the people who have suffered huge losses as the properties they purchased or got booked in the plazas proved to be constructed in violation of building bylaws and are being demolished. Most of them have been deprived of their life savings,” maintained Dr Ajaz who had been a senior faculty member at the National College of Arts.