LAHORE: The Lahore High Court was told on Wednesday that the Punjab government could not acquire even an inch of Hazrat Baba Mauj Darya shrine’s land as Mughal Emperor Jalaluddin Muhammad Akbar had allotted the whole property in the name of the saint’s family for all times to come.

Advancing his final arguments against the Orange Line Metro Train project, civil society’s counsel Advocate Azhar Siddique told a division bench that Emperor Akbar back in 967 Hijra had issued a “royal order” that says, “200 thousand beghay land around the shrine of Hazrat Shah Hussain Bokhari (Baba Mauj Darya) would remain in possession of the noble family forever and income through this land would also be of the family’s possession.”

The lawyer also presented a copy of Emperor Akbar’s order before the bench.

Advocate Siddique argued that afterwards none of rulers of Lahore ever tried to undo the decision of Emperor Akbar regarding the shrine.

He pointed out that the mosque adjacent to the shrine was being acquired for the project.

Moreover, the counsel said, the impugned project would destroy environment of the city and its cultural beauty.

He said other important sectors, including health and education, had been neglected in the name of development, urging the bench to scrap the project and the budget allocated for it.

The bench headed by Justice Abid Aziz Sheikh adjourned hearing for Thursday (today) and asked Punjab advocate general to come up with the counter arguments.

Published in Dawn, July 14th, 2016