LAHORE: Lahore High Court Chief Justice Muhammad Qasim Khan on Wednesday sought an explanation from Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar about the prolonged and repeated postings of officials in the Lahore Development Authority (LDA) on deputation.

Hearing a petition against illegal housing societies established on green land areas, the chief justice asked the LDA legal adviser who was the chairman of the authority. The adviser replied that it was the chief minister.

At this, Chief Justice Khan sought a written explanation from the chief minister, being the LDA chairman, about the officials working in the authority for a long period of time on deputation. The CJ also sought a similar explanation from the LDA vice chairman.

He observed that a decision whether to summon the chief minister in person would be taken after going through the explanation.

Earlier, the chief justice, after going through the record of officials on deputation, wondered that at least three land acquisition collectors had been working on deputation for decades.

Asked about the period of the posting on deputation, an LDA officer told the CJ that an official could be appointed on deputation for three years.

During the hearing, Chief Justice Khan regretted that every citizen paid direct and indirect taxes to the government all their life and the government could not provide them a free piece of land for their grave.

He asked a provincial law officer that ongoing work on the development projects in Mianwali and Dera Ghazi Khan, the native districts of Prime Minister Imran Khan and Chief Minister Buzdar, respectively could be stopped if the government was short of money and land.

The law officer said the government would soon satisfy the concerns of the court in this matter.

About the illegal societies, the law officer said the Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) had collected complete data of the societies constructed on green land areas to take action against them.

The CJ sought a progress report from the ACE at the next hearing on Feb 23.

Published in Dawn, February 11th, 2021