GUJRAT: The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Friday stopped the higher education and sports departments of Punjab as well as the Gujrat deputy commissioner from construction of a sports stadium and shopping market on the land of the Government Zamindar College, Bhimbher Road.

Justice Masud Abid Naqvi of the LHC on Friday granted a stay against the proposed projects on the petition of PML-N MNA Nawabzada Mazhar Ali Khan who filed the plea on behalf of the Zamindar Educational Association.

Mahmood A Sheikh, the counsel for Zamindar Educational Association, said the LHC judge had sought comments from the respondents, including secretaries of the Higher Education Department (HED), sports, youth affairs and archeology departments, and the Gujrat DC on the matter.

Petition was filed by PML-N MNA Nawabzada Mazhar Ali Khan

The secretary HED, in a recently issued letter to the Gujrat DC, had allowed the execution of the project but at the same time the department refused issuance of any kind of no objection certificate (NOC) to approve the scheme.

It had proposed a unique arrangement for the administrative control over the stadium by saying that the sports stadium would be the part of the college and would also be under administratively controlled by the college administration.

The Zamindar Educational Association was of the view that as per a Supreme Court judgment of 1987, the properties and assets of the nationalised colleges would remain in ownership of the parent organisation as well as the government and their properties could never be used for any purpose other than that of education.

However, in 2004, the then Gujrat DCO Saadat Ali (late) had ordered a mutation of college’s 92 kanals piece of land to the sports department without approval from the HED and the board of revenue.

A recent inquiry conducted by the incumbent Additional Deputy Commissioner (revenue) Syed Musa Raza had termed the mutation an illegal act, recommending its cancellation and transferring the ownership of the land to the college

In 2006-07, the Punjab government had established a sports gymnasium at a dedicated piece of the said land that was transferred to the sports department whereas an e library had also been established in 2017 adjacent to the gymnasium.

The Gujranwala commissioner had also endorsed the findings of the Musa Raza committee and ordered the cancellation of mutation whereas the HED secretary had also termed the mutation wrong.

Published in Dawn, April 7th, 2018