LAHORE, March 9: A division bench of the Lahore High Court on Thursday allowed the Punjab government to go ahead with the construction of a multi-million rupee five-storey shopping plaza, along with a bowling alley, a modern theatre and a cinema house, at Doongi Ground on the M.M. Alam Road.

In the city’s master plan, the place has been mentioned as an open space which has been in the use of nearly 600,000 residents of the area as a park and playground for about 55 years.

Comprising Justice Muhammad Bilal Khan and Justice Tariq Shamim, the LHC bench suspended the stay order granted by a single bench of the high court and declared that the intra-court appeal filed by the provincial government was maintainable.

The bench referred the ICA, a writ petition through which the Shehri-CBE had brought the project into question and the miscellaneous application of Advocate Muhammad Azhar to Chief Justice Iftikhar Husain Chaudhry with the request that a larger bench might be constituted to adjudicate the dispute.

Advocates Syed Mansoor Ali Shah and Muhammad Azhar opposed the decision on the plea that it contravened the Law Reforms Ordinance according to which an ICA could not be held as maintainable against an interim order like issuing status quo in a dispute before the final decision.

The counsel referred to various judgments of the apex and high courts, which did not allow appeals against an interim decision. They contended that this would open a Pandora’s box and make an adverse impact on the dispensation of commercial and civil matters in particular.

Advocate Shah also submitted that the single bench had clearly written the order that the project was not without controversies and the petitions had raised vital points, which were to be decided before the final decision. The single bench had taken no decision on merit (of the dispute) and referred the case to be decided by a division bench, he added.

He submitted that the stay order was granted because the single bench, comprising Justice Saeed Akhtar, had observed that the possession of the playground, its transfer to the Parks and Horticulture Authority by the LDA under a Punjab government instruction and the issuance of an NOC by the Punjab Environment Protection Agency were still in dispute and must be resolved before allowing the project to be undertaken.

Advocate Shah also referred to the statements of information secretary Taimoor Azmat Usman, who is also the managing-director of the Punjab Entertainment Company, and PHA director-general Shabbir Ahmad, who were on record saying that none of the legal requirements for the project had been met.

He submitted that a provincial government could not be allowed to start a commercial or trading venture and it was not yet clear as to how the Rs1.5 billion project would be financed. The veracity of the provincial government releasing an amount of Rs800 million in grant-in-aid to the company in addition to the estimated cost, was also not above board, he submitted.

Advocate Azhar stated that law debarred the federal and provincial governments to establish a commercial or trading establishment and the very existence of the company was unlawful because it was aimed at certain commercial goal.

He submitted that the LDA notification of Nov 11, 1998, under which the ‘open space’ was transferred to the PHA, was not maintainable because the former could not change the character of a park or playground under the law.