The greenbelt with myriad old trees on a service road in Muslim Town’s B Block, facing the Canal Rd, is now taken up by a huge concrete wall, prominently showing a number of security bunkers inside. This is the Chinese embassy’s Consulate General office in Lahore.

From a distance, the huge concrete wall looks like a little China wall, built on account of security reasons. Muslim Town, an old residential locality of the city, has many buildings which are now used as commercial offices but it rarely has had such an office with extraordinary security machinery installed that includes pickets which block all the lanes leading to the site. Above all, it curtails the freedom of movement of the locals.

The two adjacent houses, to be used as the Consulate General office, are surrounded by similar wall structures with security bunkers set up on all sides. The streets outside, on the other hand, have been occupied by barricades at all entry points.

A special team of the city police is seen guarding the construction site all the time, the locals say. The cemented wall is still under construction but some residents of the area have already moved the Lahore High Court (LHC), demanding the removal of such a high-risk office from the residential zone.

Some people in the neighbourhood, requesting anonymity, told TNS that the two houses were rented on a very high sum and the owners had connections with the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N).

It was last year that the Chinese Ambassador Sun Weidong announced opening the Consulate General office in Lahore. Today, land has been acquired, reconstruction work begun and the recruitment for the consulate staff is complete.

All told, the office seeks to facilitate the Punjab-based businessmen whose visa requirements would be met on urgent basis. It is also being linked with the increasing operations of Chinese firms in Punjab.

The said office shall also serve to improve coordination for the security of the Chinese engineers and technical experts working on different projects in the province in general and in Lahore in particular. Currently, as per a report, the Chinese experts are working on a number of projects in Punjab that include the Nandi Pur Power Project, Jinnah Barrage Hydro Power Project, Bahawalpur Solar Park, Motorways and other mega coal and hydro projects. The Chinese firms have also gotten contracts for construction of a new underground metro bus service in Lahore, named Orange Line.

As for the site being a security hazard to the locals, Rana Sajid Siddique, a resident of Muslim Town has moved court. He claims that a property near his house was given to the consulate "illegally" on rent against $40,000 per month.

Rana Zulfiqar Ali Khan, the counsel of the petitioner, told the court that a security wall has been erected on concrete measuring 800ft in length, 18ft in height and 16 inches wide, around the property on the service road. The wall has also covered the greenbelt and checkpoints are being set up separately.

The petition claimed that the situation would cause a permanent mental agony to the locals. The petition sought a demolition of the security wall and the checkpoint outside the proposed site for Chinese Consulate as it is unlawful and against the fundamental rights of the citizens. In its hearing Thursday last, the court sought replies from the concerned quarters and adjourned the case till September 9.

Raza Ali Dada, whose office is close to the Consulate building on the Canal Rd, believes the "concrete walls have badly affected the image of the locality. Ultimately, it’s the residents who shall suffer."

"There’s a silent majority that wouldn’t come out in the streets or register their protests. But that doesn’t mean they are happy about the development," says Shahid Mahmood, another resident.

"Still there are people who would maintain silence because of economic interest. They assume that the setting up of such offices would increase the rental and property value of the locality," he adds.

This isn’t the first time that such a high-security risk place has come into spotlight. The American Consulate General office in the city also took up a major part of a public road under security measures.

A few years back, the residents of the Model Town Society (MTS), another old but posh locality of the city, launched a campaign against building such high-security offices in residential areas. In March 2010, a powerful blast ripped through the area, killing more than a dozen, as terrorists attacked a ‘safe house’ said to be run at a rented place in K Block. It was a secret place of the Special Intelligence Unit (SIU). The MTS campaign got momentum after the incident.

More recently, the Punjab government moved its Crime Investigation Department (CID) head office from the residential area of Gulberg to a place outside the city, following the protest demonstrations made by the locals.

Last year, the MTS campaign was partially stalled because of the activity that was going on around the Minhajul Quran campus and the house of its chief Dr Tahirul Qadri who had started a movement against the sitting government. The closure of different roads with the help of containers, in the name of security, became a nuisance for the common residents.