LAHORE: The Lahore High Court on Friday stayed the land acquisition process for construction of Ring Road Southern Loop-III (SL-III).

Chief Justice Muhammad Qasim Khan issued the stay order on a petition by a factory owner and also appointed a local commission to visit the land in question and apprise the court of the factual position.

The petitioner, Muhammad Ilyas, challenged the acquisition of land mainly on grounds of illegal change in the project design.

His counsel, Mian Bilal Ahmad, argued before the court that a straight road was finalised in the original design of the project. H

owever, he said, the Ring Road Authority (RRA) later changed the design allegedly to protect the land of some favourites. Mandatory approval had not been sought from the relevant municipal council to modify the design, he added.

The counsel further said the petitioner and a number of factory owners were affected by changes in the Ring Road design as his land of over five kanal would be used for the project.

He also highlighted the illegalities in the land acquisition process, saying the land acquisition commissioner had issued the notification without hearing or entertaining objections of the affected people.

Advocate Ahmad asked the court to declare changes in the design of SL-III illegal and set aside the notification of land acquisition.

He further requested the court to restrain the RRA from acquiring the land till final disposal of the instant petition.

The chief justice heard the arguments and stayed the land acquisition

process seeking reports from the government and other respondents. The hearing was adjourned for a week.

Published in Dawn, June 27th, 2020