Judgment reserved in Chinese consulate case

LAHORE
The Lahore High Court Tuesday reserved judgment on a petition challenging construction of a Chinese consulate in residential area of New Muslim Town.
A resident of the area, Rana Sajjad Siddique, filed the petition contending that a property near his house had been given to Chinese consulate ‘illegally’ on rent against $40,000 per month.
Petitioner’s counsel Rana Zulfiqar Ali Khan told the court that the government started constructing a security wall on concrete measuring 800ft in length and 18ft height and 16 inches thick around the property on service road and main Canal Road. He said the security wall not only surrounded the proposed building for Chinese consulate but also the service road and the greenbelt. He said the respondent authorities were also establishing a checkpoint in the locality that would cause a permanent mental agony to millions of people having right to use public roads. He said the ‘unlawful’ checkpoint was a constant source of threat to innocent people as the checkpoint might be the target of terrorists in future in the prevailing circumstances of the country. He pointed out that the residents of the neighboring houses of the proposed Chinese consulate had been forced not to take out their vehicles outside their houses as the outlets of the public roads had been converted into narrow passages. Therefore, he said, now it was impossible for any four-wheel vehicle to come outside of a house. Advocate Khan asked the court to order demolition of the security wall and the checkpoint outside the proposed site for Chinese consulate for being unlawful and against the fundamental rights of the citizens.