LAHORE: The Supreme Court on Saturday ordered the Punjab government and the city district government to take over all 24 petrol pumps being run on state land in Lahore despite cancellation of their leases, and offer them for sale through open bidding.

A two-judge bench, headed by Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar, was hearing a matter regarding sale of state land on lease in a non-transparent way and on throwaway prices.

Deputy Commissioner (DC) Saleha Saeed submitted a report before the court and said there were 32 petrol pumps established on state land in the provincial capital -- four on the land of Lahore Municipal Corporation and 20 on the provincial government’s land. The land of the remaining eight pumps had already been acquired by the government for the Orange Line Metro Train project.

The DC pointed out that owners of the 24 pumps were not vacating the land despite the fact that their lease stood cancelled several years ago. One of the owners had been running his pumps despite cancellation of his lease in 1961 by obtaining stay orders from civil courts, she added.

Minister tells SC plan ready to compensate LDA City affectees

Petrol pump owners were also present in the court along with their counsel however the chief justice rejected their arguments.

CJP Nisar observed that the court would not allow doling out of state land at the cost of losses to the public exchequer. He recalled that the government received benefits worth billions of rupees after 22 pumps established on the land of Lahore Development Authority were auctioned.

He ordered the government to immediately seal the pumps and put them up on sale through an auction. He also observed that the existing owners of the pumps could participate in the auction.

LDA City: Punjab Minister for Housing Mian Mahmoodur Rasheed told the Supreme Court that the government had chalked out a plan to compensate the affectees of the LDA-City housing scheme.

He said the government took the matter seriously and reached a practical solution to end the sufferings of over 9,000 citizens who had purchased files of the plots in the housing scheme.

He pointed out that the developers had so far handed over 58,000 kanal land to the Lahore Development Authority (LDA). However, he said, the land was scattered.

He said the LDA possessed around 9,000 kanal consolidated land where Phase-I of the housing scheme could be developed if the private developers/partners acquired 4,500 kanal more land for the authority to compact the plots.

The minister stated that the developers agreed to provide the remaining 4,500 kanal land to the LDA in phases within the period of one year.

He said the affectees would be compensated in shape of plots in the Phase-I of the housing scheme.

Expressing satisfaction over the plan, Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar observed that the project should have not been developed on the basis of public-private partnership.

When directed, the minister assured the court that the land would be acquired from private persons on market-based value.

The chief justice also directed the minister to ensure payment of compensation to the citizens whose land had been acquired decades ago.

Meanwhile, the lawyers of the private developers objected to a clause mentioned in an agreement reach with the government. They said the clause was threatening in nature as the government decided to refer the matter to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) if the developers failed to acquire the required land for the LDA.

At this, the chief justice directed the minister and the lawyers of the developers to sit together and rationalise the clause. With this direction, the chief justice disposed of the matter.

The chief justice had taken a suo motu notice of the complaints moved by a number of individuals against non-provision of plots against the plot files they purchased in the LDA-City housing scheme, a project launched by the previous government of the PML-N.

Published in Dawn, January 13th, 2019