LHC stays Lahore Master Plan

LAHORE: The Lahore High Court on Tuesday stayed the implementation of the Lahore Master Plan 2050 till further orders.

Justice Shahid Karim of the Lahore High Court heard the case and sought a report from the Punjab government, the chief secretary and others.

Punjab’s Additional Advocate-General Makhdoom Ali informed the court that the provincial government had launched the Ravi Urban Project under the Lahore Master Plan 2050 to save the provincial capital from environmental pollution. He said the petitions were not maintainable.

The counsel for the petitioner, Advocate Shehzad Shaukat, prayed to the court to issue orders to the government to take measures to curb environmental pollution. He implored the court to stop illegal construction work in the name of Lahore master plan.

The court has stayed the implementation of the master plan and adjourned the hearing for two weeks.

According to the petition, the Lahore Master Plan 2050 tried to “illegally validate” RUDA and give it a legal status despite court orders. It said that in Lahore, approximately 1,870,000 kanals of green land were encroached on and illegally converted in violation of Lahore’s previous master plan. But the LDA took no action.

The petitioner alleged that the Master Plan 2050 tended to reduce the green area of Lahore despite its depleting air quality, saying that the air quality of Lahore deteriorates at an average rate of 10.7 percent each year. The petitioner stated that in the public notice issued in February 2022, the brown area in Lahore was 63 square kilometers, but the final master plan now shows the brown area to have been expanded to 96 square kilometers.

It said that the environment of Lahore “is likely to be destroyed at a more rapid speed” due to the Master Plan 2050.

The local government was not consulted before the approval of the Lahore Master Plan 2050, despite a previous court judgment, the petition concluded.