LAHORE: Releasing detailed judgment on ‘7-km long signal-free corridor’ project that was to be executed from Qartaba Chowk, Jail Road, to Liberty Chowk, Main Boulevard, Gulberg, a Lahore High Court full bench has directed the National Accountability Bureau to initiate an inquiry against Lahore Development Authority and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) director generals for failing to comply with the law and to account for loss of public money.

The Supreme Court, on an appeal filed by the Lahore Development Authority (LDA), had suspended the impugned order of March 17 with a direction to the high court bench to release a detailed verdict in the case.

In its detailed judgment, the LHC full bench also struck down the initiation of the Signal Free Corridor Project by LDA being unconstitutional and asked NAB to submit its inquiry report within two months.

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Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah headed the bench with Justice Muhammad Yawar Ali and Justice Ayesha A Malik its member judges. Some concerned citizens of Lahore including Imrana Tiwana, I A Rehman, Ayaz Amir and Faryal Ali Gohar had assailed the project before the LHC.

LHC issues detailed verdict on signal-free corridor project

The bench, dilating upon the concept of environmental justice, observed it was embedded in the fundamental rights enshrined in the Constitution.

Evaluating Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for the project, the bench noted EPA was a regulator tasked with protecting the environment, but it was operating under a civil servant DG appointed by the provincial government and thus being controlled and dictated by the parties it regulated. Thus, the EPA was under regulatory capture, it added.

The bench highlighted the importance of EIA and held it was not independently reviewed by EPA being captured and beleaguered and that the review process was deficient in material particulars and could not be sustained. Thus, the bench set aside the EIA approval of the project.

The bench discussed the conceptual frameworks of local government system while tracing the history of the system in Pakistan. It also comparatively analysed the LG systems in South Africa, India and Pakistan.

The bench came to a conclusion that the LG system draws its powers from the provincial legislature, however, the executive authority of the provincial government in the absence of any legislation, in any case, could not extend to the affairs of the local government, which operated under a legislative structure.

The bench held that the powers and functions of LDA under various sections of the LDA Act 1975 are ultra vires to Articles 9, 14, 17, 25, 32, 37(I) and 140A of the Constitution.

Published in Dawn, May 21st, 2015

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