LDA rolls back drive against marriage halls

Town Planning director says court allowed them to operate

LAHORE

After launching a very aggressive campaign against city marriage halls for violating building bylaws, Lahore Development Authority (LDA) high-ups suddenly rolled back all its directives and allowed the marriage halls to continue enjoy using main roads, side lanes and greenbelts as free parking resulting in traffic jams and inconvenience to the citizens.

During the recent operation, LDA sealed over 150 marriage halls in different city localities but almost all of them have resumed working. Owners of majority of marriage halls got de-sealing orders from local courts despite the fact that LDA has a big legal wing, which comprised over several top lawyers.

A visit of different city localities revealed that majority of provincial capital's marriage halls are openly violating building rules by not providing enough parking place for their customers resulting in severe traffic jams lasting for hours in peak hours time. The situation turns worst on Saturdays and Sundays while on weekdays the problem also exists.

It is revealed that most of the marriage halls located along main roads did not have ample space for parking and their customers and their guests used to park their vehicles on main roads, side lanes and greenbelts. It is learnt that many marriage halls are also using their parking lots and basements to earn revenues at the cost of citizens. 

Several areas where one can witness traffic jams due to parking of vehicles came to attend a marriage are main boulevard Garden Town, Gulshan-e-Ravi, Main boulevard Gulberg, Mehmood Ali Kasuri Road, Guru Mangat Road, College Road Township, Allama Iqbal Road, Chowk Nakhuda, Main boulevard Samanabad, Sher Shah Road, Ferozpur Road, Taj Bagh, Mughalpura, Canal Bank Road, main boulevard Johar Town and etc.

The recent operation against city marriage halls was initiated on the complaints of traffic police authorities which told the chief minister that most of marriage halls/marquees didn't have proper parking spaces due to which severe traffic jams are being witnessed in different city localities.

LDA claimed that the sealed marriage halls/marquees had been constructed in violation of building by-laws and building plans were not got approved by LDA for any of the sealed marriage hall. The LDA officials claimed that instead, the owners had illegally set up these ventures after getting approved plans for constructing residences or office buildings at site.

The LDA officials revealed that the minimum land required for setting up a marquee was eight kanals whereas at least four kanals land was necessary for constructing a marriage hall with two kanals of land to be left vacant for parking vehicles. None of the marriage halls/marquee had fulfilled these conditions.

Muzammil Arshad, a resident of Gulshan-e-Ravi, said the area was facing worst situation and in case of an emergency none of the residents could reach hospital. He said this was because there were over 25 marriage halls on the main road of Gulshan-e-Ravi just within a distance of one kilometer. He said most of the marriage halls didn't have proper parking place. He added that visitors of dozens of marriage halls, which are operative in the Moon Market Gulshan-e-Ravi also used to park their vehicles on the main road. College Road, Township is also a classic example of this situation where over dozens of marriage halls were established over a passage of last 10 years. It is strange to note that none of the marriage halls have proper parking places but LDA allowed them to run their business with ease. Wapda Town, Nespak, and other nearby housing colonies are also facing the similar situation.

Ferozpur Road and Main boulevard, Gulberg daily witnesses traffic jams due to illegal parking of marriage halls, which results in serious traffic jam. Similarly, some newly-constructed marriage halls in the Johar Town area especially near Emporium Tower are using side lanes to park vehicles and their armed guards stopped common residents to use the roads.

Residents of various City localities have demanded Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif to take action against the marriage halls as well as LDA officials who allowed construction of marriage halls in violation of building by laws.

Town Planning wing of LDA is supposed to monitor construction of buildings as well as enforcement of building by-laws in LDA's jurisdiction but unfortunately no action was taken against any marriage hall during construction period. Town Planning wing of LDA check every ongoing construction, first before shuttering, then after that and finally after completion of a building. LDA's plea that owners of the sealed halls/marquees didn't get building plans approved by LDA and owners had illegally set up these ventures after getting approved plans for constructing residences or office buildings at site can be proved wrong as Town Planning wing give completion certificate to every building.

When asked that why LDA ended its campaign against marriage halls before reaching a logical conclusion, Khalid Mehmood Director Town Planning LDA said this is why almost every marriage hall owner got orders of local court, which allowed them to operate. He said the department had prepared a list of all those marriage halls which got court orders and this list would be shared with the chief minister with a request to ask the courts to not give any favour to marriage hall owners in future.

Responding to a question that why LDA's legal wing remained silent and didn't contest the marriage hall owners in court, he said a three-member panel of senior lawyers had recently been constituted, which was devising strategy to deal with the situation.

Over a question that why LDA is not taking indiscriminate action against all those who violate building by-laws in general, he said LDA was doing its best but sometimes political decisions were imposed on the authority.