School plot encroachment: SC blasts Punjab govt over failure to resolve matter

ISLAMABAD: A Supreme Court bench blasted the Punjab government Friday over its failure of resolving the issue of encroachment of girls’ school plot in Gujranwala.

Justice Qazi Faez Essa addressing the chief secretary said you make big claims on media daily, can you resolve a problem apart from speeches. The Punjab government could not provide land to a school.

A chief secretary could not resolve a minor problem, how is he running a province, the Justice asked. Thirteen years were not enough for you to resolve the matter. Justice Gulzar said a meaningless paper was submitted in the court. The court will be compelled to take a decision if the government fails to do so, Justice Gulzar said.

Don’t offer a lollypop to the court. The matter is not in the power of the chief secretary someone else will come to decide, Justice Gulzar further said. The court Thursday had given the provincial chief secretary one day to resolve the matter. The bench told the provincial chief secretary to resolve the issue or face the consequences.

The government counsel told the bench that the government was ready to provide an alternate piece of land for the school. Justice Gulzar said the government was offering a lollypop; the school was on the land of trust in the centre of the city, how trust property can turn into a ‘Katchi Abadi’. Justice Gulzar remarked that regularisation of trust land is unlawful. He questioned the government what action was taken against the officers involved in an illegal act.

Justice Gulzar also questioned the justification of providing alternate plot for the girls’ school 13 kilometres away from the actual place. Why the ‘Katchi Abadi’ is not being transferred to some other place, the judge asked. How the children will travel 13 km to reach their school, he questioned.