LHC seeks report from DC on Hashmi’s demolished property

MULTAN: The Lahore High Court Multan Bench on Wednesday sought a detailed report from the Multan deputy commissioner on whether the demolished property of Javed Hashmi was a public piece of land or private.

Earlier, petitioner Memoona Hashmi filed a petition before LHC Justice Ali Baqar Najafi, challenging the district administration orders of demolishing her property. The petitioner argued that the district administration demolished a property owned by her father Javed Hashmi, which was in fact a private property. The Auqaf Department did not own the property. No notice had been issued before demolishing the property.

Justice Najafi inquired the matter from Assistant Attorney General Zamir Sandhal. He argued that the petitioner should have moved the deputy commissioner office instead of appearing in court. The court passed the remarks that “you are advising the petitioner to go by book and first move the deputy commissioner office”. Did the administration go by book in demolishing the property? the court questioned. The court asked the public prosecutor if he had given them any notice, to which he replied that he did not know about it.

The court adjourned the hearing for Thursday and sought a reply from the deputy commissioner Multan. The court directed the deputy commissioner to submit a detailed report on whether the demolished building had been set up on government land or was privately owned.