RAWALPINDI, Sept 17: The Lahore High Court (LHC) Rawalpindi bench here on Wednesday disposed of a writ petition against the Town Municipal Administration (TMA) Murree for stopping the construction of some high-rise buildings at the hill resort.

Justice Maulvi Anwarul Haq of the LHC set aside the submission of 10 different petitioners against the TMA for halting the construction, though they had got the site plans approved by the administration.

The court directed the petitioners to knock at the door of relevant civil court if any wrong had been done to them and asked the TMA to proceed in accordance with the law. Sardar Abdul Razik, the lawyer of the TMA, told Dawn that 10 petitioners moved the high court in 2005 when the administration stopped them from constructing more than two story commercial plazas. The petitioners prayed that they should be allowed to complete their buildings.

They contended that they had got the site plans approved from the TMA Murree in accordance with its building by-laws but were later not allowed to raise the buildings.

The TMA maintained in the court that building by-laws in Murree did not permit three or more storey construction as it was deemed unsafe for the human beings and for the environment of the popular hill station.

The town administration said the petitioners were raising their buildings in violation of the site plans approved by the TMA and against its building by-laws. The administration also stated that the Supreme Court had earlier taken suo motu notice of high-rise buildings in Murree and had directed the TMA to take action against such constructions.

Meanwhile, a division bench of the LHC comprising Justice Maulvi Anwarul Haq and Justice Syed Sajjad Hussain Shah denied bail to a man for allegedly renting his house to drug pushers after he was arrested by the Anti Narcotics Force (ANF) last year.

The accused, Raja Nadeem Kiani, in his bail plea stated that no recovery had been made from him and there was no witness against him except the fact that he had rented out his house in Tulsa to Ishaq and Ashfaq, who allegedly prepared cartons to export mangoes but concealed brown heroin in the boxes.

The ANF arrested two persons in July 2007 from Islamabad airport with 52kg heroin concealed in the mango boxes and recovered such boxes from a house rented by Kiani to Ishaq and Ashfaq, who are yet to be arrested. Kiani was also arrested by the ANF.

The court observed that the Supreme Court had denied bail to a man in a similar case after narcotics were seized from a hotel leased by him. The bench observed the possibility of the owner of the house being involved in the drug pushing could not be ruled out.