RAWALPINDI, March 3 The Lahore High Court here on Wednesday issued notices to the Punjab government in a petition challenging the ban on construction within 100 metres on both sides of the Murree Expressway.

Justice Asad Munir also directed Additional Advocate General Punjab Razzak A. Mirza to seek instructions from the government and respond to the five different petitions on March 10.

Sardar Ashfaq Abbasi Advocate, representing the petitioners Asad Abbasi and others, told Dawn that the court had stopped the government from demolishing the already raised constructions till the final outcome of the case.

He said the government had last year issued a notification barring all kinds of constructions around the expressway. He said the 100-metre limit fixed by the government was too large for the inhabitants.

The residents have been living there for years and many of the villages are feared to be bulldozed if the government went ahead with its plan, he added.

He said according to the National Highway Authority (NHA) rules, no construction could be raised within 100 feet along a highway. The counsel claimed that certain politicians in Lahore wanted to use the spare land.

The petitioners prayed the court to set aside the notification and direct the government not to pull down the houses and buildings along the expressway.