August 08, 2006	Tuesday	Rajab 12, 1427

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LAHORE, Aug 7: The Supreme Court on Monday stopped the provincial government and the Punjab Entertainment Company from carrying out civil work on a project under which a modern cinema house and a shopping centre are being built at Doongi ground on M. M. Alam Road, Gulberg.

The apex court issued the order accepting a petition for leave to appeal filed by Karachi-based NGO Shehri-CBE (Citizens for Better Environment), journalist Ardshir Cowasji and 11 residents of the area through Advocate Syed Mansoor Ali Shah. The petition contested a decision of a full bench of the Lahore High Court which dismissed last month the constitutional writ petition, challenging the commercial project in the public interest, on the ground of non-prosecution.

A Supreme Court bench, headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, also restored the writ petition, and directed the LHC to constitute a larger bench for the hearing of the petition which should also include Justice Mohammad Sayeed Akhtar who, on Feb 23, had stayed the construction work.

The court, which held its proceedings in Islamabad, also directed the LHC deputy registrar (judicial) to file his reply to the allegation that by returning the petitioner’s earlier application seeking the inclusion of Justice Sayeed Akhtar in the larger bench with the objection that it was not maintainable, he had impeded the right to access to justice.

The apex court also directed the LHC registrar office to ensure that in future every petition and application should be fixed before a bench for adjudication instead of returning the same as non-maintainable.

Advocate-general Chaudhry Mohammad Aftab Iqbal, counsel of the Punjab Entertainment Company Khwaja Saeeduz Zafar and LDA’s legal adviser Qamaruz Zaman were present in the court.

The apex court said in its order the work on the project shall not be taken up till the LHC decided the fate of the writ petition in its finality.

The Punjab Entertainment Company was established under an order of the provincial government to carry out the Rs3.5 billion project for which six acres at Doongi ground were also allocated.

The writ petition against the project was first taken up by Justice Sayeed Akhtar who, on Feb 23, stayed the construction work. The stay was vacated on March 9 by an LHC division bench and the work was resumed.

The petitioner moved the Supreme Court in a leave to appeal petition, and the apex court suspended on April 14 the division bench’s order restoring the stay against the project. The LHC then constituted a full bench under the apex court’s order.

Comprising Justices Syed Sakhi Husain Bokhari, Mohammad Bilal Khan and Fazle Miran Chauhan, the LHC bench dismissed last month the writ petition of the Shehri-CBE for non-prosecution when its counsel, Syed Mansoor Ali Shah, was not present in the court. However, the LHC continued the hearing of an identical public interest petition filed by Advocate Mohammad Azhar Siddiqui. The Shehri-CBE later moved another petition to the LHC’s full bench requesting the restoration of the writ petition contending that a public interest petition could not be dismissed on technical grounds.

Meanwhile, Advocate Azhar also moved the LHC with an application requesting the court to issue a direction to the respondents to stop work on the project which the PEC had started soon after the Shehri-CBE’s writ petition was dismissed. The court issued notices to respondents and fixed the last week of July for hearing.

The petitioner challenged the project mainly on the plea that a public park could not be turned into a commercial place.

Another plea taken by the two petitioners is that the transfer of land to the Punjab Entertainment Company was issued by the chief minister who was not competent to issue such orders. The petitioners also pleaded that the Punjab government had, by launching a commercial undertaking, contravened certain provisions of the 1973 Constitution which provided that the public sector could only develop public welfare projects and could not launch a commercial venture.

The Lahore Development Authority had transferred about six acres, which its records showed a public park, to the Parks and Horticulture Authority which transferred the same piece of land to the PEC under the orders of the chief minister.