LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Friday stayed demolition of houses in Bagh Gul Begum, a private locality adjacent to Miani Sahib graveyard, till Nov 9.

Justice Ali Akbar Qureshi issued the stay order on the petition moved by Fakhar Shah and others against demolition of their houses.

Advocates Shahid Maqbool Sheikh and Safdar Shaheen Pirzada appeared on behalf of the petitioners.

The counsel argued the district government issued notices to the petitioners in the light of the high court direction for demolition of allegedly illegal houses. They said appeals had been filed in the Supreme Court against the order of the high court. Therefore, they said the proposed demolition of the houses should be halted till a final decision on the appeals.

Justice Qureshi accepted the request and restrained the district government from carrying out any operation against the residents of Bagh Gul Begum till Nov 9.

In a separate case, the judge directed the district government of Sargodha to submit a compliance report after demolishing illegal shops constructed on the land of a local graveyard.

Petitioners contended that the encroachers grabbed two-kanal land of the graveyard and constructed shops on it. They alleged that political figures of the area had been patronising the land grabbers. They asked the court to order demolition of the shops constructed on the graveyard’s land.

The judge directed the district government to bulldoze the illegal construction and submit a compliance report next week.

Published in Dawn, November 3rd, 2018