The Supreme Court on Saturday ordered the formation of a committee to ensure the provision of land or payment of compensation to the affectees of the Lahore Development Authority (LDA) City mega housing project.

The directives were given during a suo motu hearing conducted by a two-member bench, headed by Chief Justice Saqib Nisar, at the Lahore registry.

The court ordered that the committee — which comprised the Punjab chief secretary, the provincial housing minister, the officials of National Accountability Burea (NAB), and others — should submit a report within 10 days regarding the resolution of the issue.

"If the LDA City case did not concern widows and orphans, then today all bureaucrats involved and owners of the [development] companies would have been in jail," remarked the chief justice.

He said Paragon City, Alfa Estate, and other [development] companies were acting like "pimps". "I have used a stinging word on purpose so that these people realise [their wrongdoing]," he added.

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The counsel representing the mega city project, Advocate Ahsan Bhawan, said the development companies will provide land for LDA City within two to three years. He recommended that the time should be reduced for the provision of land.

At this, the chief justice said if the four companies required to provide land, including Alfa Estate, do not do so within a year, then the contract with them should be cancelled.

Chief Justice Nisar urged that the land should be acquired expediently and be allotted to the affectees. The counsel said that the land acquired so far had been transferred to LDA City's name.

The counsel further informed the court that the companies had sold 9,000 registration files in excess and that 20,000 kanals of land was still needed so it may be allotted to the affectees.

Justice Ijazul Ahsan, the other member of the bench hearing the case, said: "Why doesn't LDA complete the project on its own? It is such a big company. It should complete the project itself."

To this, the counsel for LDA responded by saying that the company "does not have the required funds to do so".

The chief justice remarked: "Trust is a major factor in such matters. With this, trust in LDA will be completely terminated."

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The counsel said that 19,000 kanals of existing land was "scattered" (in different locations) to which the chief justice immediately responded by saying: "This has been done on purpose. LDA's former employees and the companies were all in connivance. If it were me, I would have personally conducted a trial of these people."

The LDA's counsel further stated that the development companies had given them 'C' grade land which prompted the chief justice to say: "They had their vested interests. You should file a case against these companies."

Advocate Bhawan said that 300 kanals of expensive land had been given to LDA but it has not been transferred yet. He said that if 5,000 kanals more land could be arranged then phase-1 of LDA City could be completed.

Hearing all this, the chief justice grew highly exasperated and asked for the owner of Paragon City. "Where is Nadeem Zia?" he asked in annoyance.

The NAB's investigation officer present in the court informed that Zia had become an absconder in an inquiry pending against him and that red warrants for his arrest would be released soon.

"Do you know where he is hiding?" asked Justice Ahsan to which the NAB officer replied in negative, however, providing assurances that his whereabouts would be ascertained soon by the corruption watchdog.

LDA City project

The LDA launched and developed a number of housing schemes such as Gulberg, Model Town (Extension), Muslim Town, Garden Town, Shadman, Allama Iqbal Town, Sabzazar, Johar Town, Mustafa Town, Jubilee Town, Mohlanwal, Faisal Town and Township (Quaid-i-Azam Town) in the provincial capital during the last 40 to 50 years. The schemes including LDA Avenue-1 and LDA City are in the land acquisition and development phase.

“All the schemes launched and developed by the LDA are facing minor and major issues. And the main issue is non-transfer of land, acquired for these schemes, in the name of LDA. This is either a blunder or corruption on part of senior officials concerned, especially those who joined the LDA as Land Acquisition Collectors (LACs) in different periods and were supposed to complete the entire process right from acquisition to transfer under the law,” an official had earlier told Dawn.