LAHORE: Punjab Chief Secretary Jawad Rafiq Malik on Thursday assured the Lahore High Court that the green land areas will not be encroached upon by the housing societies and a strict action was being taken against those involved in the illegal act.

He said criminal cases would also be lodged against the officials of the Lahore Development Authority (LDA) in addition to the departmental proceedings for their connivance in the construction of illegal housing societies.

The chief secretary appeared before Chief Justice Muhammad Qasim Khan as he was summoned when the authorities of the LDA failed to satisfy the court on the matter of the illegal housing schemes.

The chief justice directed the chief secretary to ensure that the delinquent officials involved in the illegal acts were taken to task. He also directed the chief secretary to submit record of the officials who served in the LDA on deputation more than once.

The LDA’s legal adviser told the court that as many as 240 FIRs had been registered against the housing societies for encroaching upon the green land areas.

Chief Justice Khan observed that the government machinery did not take cognizance of a matter unless a direction was issued by the court.

In a related matter about declaring the property of a citizen as a green land area, Chief Justice Khan directed the LDA director general to submit parawise comments on the petition.

The petitioner’s counsel alleged that the Ravi riverfront project was being constructed on the green land areas. He said the LDA declared the property of the petitioner as green land in a bid to acquire the same for the riverfront project.The chief justice would resume hearing next week.

Also, Justice Khan was informed on Thursday that no auction had been held for the sale of toshakhana articles during the last five years.

A federal law officer stated this during the hearing of a petition challenging the auction of the toshakhana articles only for the officers of the government and the armed forces. The CJ had already suspended the notification of the auction, which was scheduled for Nov 25, 2020.

The chief justice directed the law officer to submit an affidavit to support his statement and also directed the petitioner’s counsel to come up with his rejoinder next week.

A citizen through a writ petition had questioned the decision of the government to permit the officers of the government and armed forces only to participate in the auction.

Published in Dawn, February 5th, 2021