RAWALPINDI, Nov 15: The local municipal authorities have failed to demolish a cinema house which is creating traffic congestion at Fawara Chowk.

A latest official report suggested that the local administration’s employees were involved in the delay.

The Rose Cinema, a property of the defunct Rawalpindi Municipal Corporation (RMC), had been leased out to Khawaja Sahadat which expired in 1967, and was not renewed subsequently.

The terms and documents of the expired lease are neither available with the municipal authorities nor with the present occupants.

The officials claimed that in the absence of proper documents it was presumed that the lease was governed by the Nazul Land rules, under which the present occupants were required to return the land to the lessor (municipal authorities) after demolishing the structure at the end of the lease period.

The lessor can even demand the return of the land from the lessee during the period of the lease in case it is required for public purposes, the Nazul rules further said.

The scrutiny of the record showed that the RMC began its campaign to demolish the cinema, constructed on 9,589 sq feet of the corporation’s land in 1983, as it required the area for widening of the Fawara Chowk.

The present value of the property is officially estimated at Rs 17.63 million.

Notices were served on the lessee, but no action followed. Later, in 1994 the RMC restarted its campaign to get rid of the structure and moved the then deputy commissioner against the renewal of the licence of the cinema since the piece of land housing the cinema was required for public purposes.

The licence was cancelled and the cinema’s premises sealed.

The then commissioner got these orders revoked in 1995. Once again, five years later in 2000, efforts were restarted on the directives of the then corps commander and notices for vacation of the building were served on the occupants in May 2000.

The lessee party moved the Lahore High Court (LHC) against the orders. The hearing in LHC began in June 2000, but since then the case has been lingering on in the court.

The RMC then sought expert opinion from its legal adviser, who in his report observed: “There is no bar on the corporation to vary or cancel the terms and conditions of lease as per provisions of the Section 122 (2&3) of the Punjab Local Government Ordinance 1979, reviewed by Punjab Local Government (Revival of Law) Act 1997. The land can be vacated for a public purpose.”

Subsequently, the RMC filed a petition in the LHC for early hearing of the case, as traffic problem at Fawara Chowk was worsening. However, the case still awaits a decision.

The doctors at the District Headquarters Hospital, located next to Rose Cinema, said the traffic problem had assumed serious dimensions, and several deaths resulted.

The RMC administrator got the causes of delay investigated through his officials and arrived at the conclusion that the delay was wilful and could not have been possible without the connivance of the employees of the corporation.

The municipal authorities said they intended to move the existing roundabout closer to Ganjmandi Road as most of the traffic was concentrated around Bara Bazaar, and a presence of a roundabout near the bazaar created numerous problems.

They said the existing premises of the Rose Cinema was a major hindrance in ending the traffic congestion problem through the realignment of the chowk.

They alleged that the cinema owners were managing to stay put by using their wealth, influence and widespread contacts. They have also sub-let the premises to shopkeepers and chemists in violation of the rules.

The Rose Cinema management contends that the demolition of the cinema would deprive the people of the area of a source of entertainment and that government was earning revenues through their taxes.

They stated that they incurred huge expenses on the renovation of the cinema and believed that the whole administration had joined hands against them.