LAHORE, Nov 7: The district coordination officer on Wednesday told the Lahore High Court that a building demolished by the city district government was not the part of “Lakshmi mansion” situated between Beadon Road and Hall Road.

This was stated in a written reply submitted to the court of Justice Ayesha A. Malik in connection with a petition challenging demolition of historical building Lakshmi mansion.

Opposing the DCO’s reply, Advocate Arif Karim (petitioner) argued that according to rules no demolition could be carried out within a 200 feet radius of a building preserved and declared a cultural heritage.

The judge adjourned further hearing till Nov 15 and directed the counsel from both sides to come up with final arguments.

The petitioner had submitted that the city district government under a project named “Dilkash Lahore” had decided to preserve Lakshmi mansion and many other historical buildings. However, he said, the government demolished one of the portions of the Lakshmi mansion in the name of commercialisation and had a plan to raze it completely.

The lawyer pleaded that such historical buildings were national heritage and the government was duty bound to keep them preserved in original condition.

He requested the court to restrain the government from demolishing the remaining portions of the Lakshmi mansion and order it to preserve the historical building.

Reply sought

The Lahore High Court directed a former coordinator of a non-government organisation to submit her written reply about a petition accusing the NGO and officials of the education department of distributing objectionable books among girl students of class six to eight in Gujranwala.

Earlier coordinator Bushra Sadiq appeared before the court in compliance with the notices issued on the last hearing. She took a plea that the books were distributed among the students after approval of the district government.

Justice Nasir Saeed Sheikh expressed dismay over the objectionable material provided in the books in question and asked her to read loudly the relevant text to show how much broadminded she was. However, she could not muster up courage to read the text. The judge adjourned further hearing till Nov 20 and directed the NGO’s former coordinator to file a written reply to defend her position in the case.

Tanzeem Arif filed the petition and submitted that the Gujranwala’s former district coordination officer had signed a memorandum of understanding with NGO Bargad about an educational programme.

He said the NGO distributed a book “Ba Akhtiar Larkian, Badla Hua Samaaj” among girl students and got it mandatory from class six to eight.

The petitioner stated the book had objectionable material and amounted to teach the girls about contraceptives and ways to have friendship with boys. He said sex education was not permitted in a Muslim society. He sought action against the NGO and the government officials.