LAHORE
A division bench of the Lahore High Court on Thursday asked Advocate General Punjab Shakil-ur-Rehman to argue on an application challenging stay orders on construction of Orange Line Train project. Bench led by Justice Abid Aziz Sheikh passed the order and adjourned further hearing for March 29.
During the hearing, the petitioners’ counsel told the bench that work on Orange line project was going on despite the fact that court had stayed it. They said it was violation of the court orders. On it, the bench ordered the Advocate General Punjab to argue on the stay application by the next hearing.
On January 28, the court had stopped work on the project in 200 feet radius of historical buildings of the city. The places where further work had been disallowed are near Laxmi building, Shalamar Garden, GPO Chowk, Aiwan-i-Auqaf, Shah Charagh building, Supreme Court registry, Saint Andrew Church, Baba Mauj Darya shrine, Ghulabi Bagh, Bhudhu Ka Awa, Chauburji and tomb of Zeb-un-Nisa.
The members of the civil society, different religious groups and lawyers had challenged the project saying that it would destroy the cultural landscape and would damage the historical sites of the city, including GPO, Shalamar Garden, Chauburji, ancient churches and historical buildings. The petitioners prayed to the court to order the government to stop construction of the project in a way it could destroy the beauty and historical buildings of the city.
summoned: The Lahore High Court on Thursday summoned the secretary transport and inspector general of Punjab police (IG) to improve issuance of driving licences and plying fit vehicles on roads.
Justice Ali Akbar Qureshi issued this order while hearing a contempt of court petition.
On previous hearing, court had issued notices and sought replies from both the officials but during the hearing on Thursday the government counsel sought more time for filing of reply.
The judge directed the secretary and IG to appear on March 29 with their replies.
Petitioner counsel said that the LHC in 2013 had directed to ensure that vehicles in good condition must be allowed to come on roads and the traffic police should also improve the system for issuance of driving licences. He said that so far three years had gone and this order was not implemented.
He said that on the roads the vehicles did not have the mandatory fitness certificates. He said that the traffic police and motor vehicle transport department were ignoring these blatant violations of the law.
He submitted that the police also failed to improve the process of driving licence issuance. He requested to trying top officials for violating the court order. The court will resume hearing on March 11.
