LDA sacks all legal advisers after rise in pending cases

LAHORE: Following a sharp rise in pending cases in different courts, Lahore Development Authority (LDA) has terminated all its legal advisers representing it in higher and lower courts for the past many years.

Sources in the authority revealed that the services of 18 legal advisers were terminated on the directions of the authority. LDA’s governing body in its meeting held on June 3, 2019 decided to terminate the services of all of its legal advisers because of various reasons including unsatisfactory performance.

Sources in LDA claimed that pending cases against LDA in various courts increased to over 12,000 and despite having an army of legal advisers the number of pending cases was increasing. Sources added that the authority was paying a retainer-ship allowance of Rs 80,000 per month to every senior lawyer representing LDA in higher courts as legal adviser or additional legal adviser while these lawyers also got Rs 9,000 per case. Similarly, the lawyers representing the authority in lower courts were paid a fix salary of Rs 35,000 per month. Sources claimed that many of the terminated legal advisers were serving in the authority for the past ten years.

Sources said two notifications were issued on June 10, 2019 regarding the termination of senior and junior legal advisers. As per first notification, dated June 10, 2019 the services of Waqar A Seikh (Legal Advisor), Mian Tahir Maqsood (Additional Legal Advisor), Kashif A Ch (Additional Legal Advisor), Syed Imtiaz Hussain Shah (Additional Legal Advisor), Mirza Amer Beig (Additional Legal Advisor) and Zil-e-Hussain Gillani (Additional Legal Advisor) were terminated. These lawyers were representing the authority in higher courts for the past many years.

Similarly, as per the second notification, dated June 10, 2019 the services of Ch Ijaz Ahmed (Additional Legal Advisor), Nasir-ud-Din (Additional Legal Adviser), Shahid Sarwar (Additional Legal Advisor), Huma Khurram (Additional Legal Adviser), Mohsin Raza Virk (Additional Legal Adviser), Abdul Majeed Abid (Additional Legal Adviser), Abbas Ali Sandhu (Additional Legal Adviser), Mirza Abdul Khaliq (Additional Legal Adviser), Abid Hussain Hanjra (Additional Legal Adviser), Hammad Hassan Randhawa (Additional Legal Adviser), Naseem Shafqat (Additional Legal Adviser) and Hussain Khan (Additional Legal Adviser) were terminated.

Answering a question, LDA’s Director Law Amer Shah said that the LDA’s authority has decided to terminate the services of all those legal advisers whose services went beyond five years. He admitted that almost 12,000 cases are pending in various courts of laws and LDA will now categorise these cases. He said that LDA is custodian of land record so private parties also includes LDA in their legal fights and such cases are above 50 per cent of the pending cases. “LDA will categorise cases in a manner which are necessary and damage the interest of the authority,” he said, adding the new legal advisers will be recruited through open competition.