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LAHORE, April 5: A division bench of the Lahore High Court dismissed on Friday an intra-court appeal against acquisition of land for a housing society near the city’s new airport.
The original owners of about 200 kanals of land submitted that the society was meant for big houses and did not address the problem of acute housing shortage.
No land, they said, could be acquired for private purpose as opposed to public purpose.
The bench, which consisted of Justices Maulvi Anwarul Haq and Mian Hamid Farooq, however, held that housing was a public purpose and that the land was rightly acquired.
MOHAFIZ TOWN: Justice Karamat Nazir Bhandari, meanwhile, asked the registrar of co-operative societies and the Wapda to find a way out to restore electricity supply to over one hundred families living in Mohafiz Town, Lahore.
There are about 800 plots in the township raised by the National Police Foundation Housing Society. The allottees, owners or purchasers of the plots paid the development charges, including dues for electricity connection.
Sub-metres were installed and over 100 families which shifted to their houses started paying mont-hly charges to the housing society.
However, the connection later turned out to be irregular. The society officials, meanwhile, disappeared from the scene and the Wapda demanded a huge sum from the residents under the new grid-sharing policy. When they said they had already paid the development charges and could not afford to pay Rs10 million under the new policy, the Wapda severed their connection.
The petitioners approached the Lahore High Court through Advo-cate Saima Khwaja, and Justice Bhandari, who heard the petition, asked the registrar of societies and the Wapda to discuss the matter with a view to providing relief to the residents pending further hearing on April 8.
