ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) intends to become a party in a case relating to the Rs45 billion Orange Line Metro Train (OLMT) project.

PTI’s Lahore (urban) president Walid Iqbal filed a petition in the Supreme Court on Monday through his counsel Rashid Hanif to become a party in the Punjab government’s appeal against the Aug 19 Lahore High Court judgement halting the construction of the ambitious OLMT.

A five-judge SC bench headed by Chief Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali and comprising Justices Sheikh Azmat Saeed, Sardar Tariq Masood, Faisal Arab and Ijazul Ahsan will take up the case on Oct 13.

The identical appeals have been moved by the Punjab government, Lahore Development Authority, Punjab Mass Transit Authority and National Engineering Services Pakistan (Nespak) against the high court’s order of suspending the construction work within 200 feet of 11 heritage sites.

The LHC issued the order on a petition filed by civil society activist Kamil Khan Mumtaz.

The heritage sites include Shalamar Gardens, Gulabi Bagh Gateway, Buddhu ka Awa, Chauburji, Zebunnisa’s Tomb, Lakshmi Building, General Post Office, Aiwan-i-Auqaf, Supreme Court’s Lahore registry building, St. Andrews Presbyterian church on Nabha Road and Baba Mauj Darya Bukhari’s shrine.

In his petition, Walid Iqbal argued that his presence in the case was necessary in aid of meaningful protection of the rule of law given to the citizens by Article 4 of the Constitution.

The petition contended that the OLMT project threatened national monuments and heritage sites which were a pride for the people of Lahore and an insight into the past glory of their structural, cultural, sculptural, artistic and archaeological skills. These heritage sites are also a source of vision and wisdom of their ancestors.

The petition argued that the provincial government’s appeal was not only a matter of national importance governed by the Constitution and national laws, including the Antiquity Act 1975, the Punjab Special Premises (Preservation) Ordinance 1985 and the Punjab Heritage Foundation Act 2005, but also of international significance keeping in mind the Unesco Convention on the Protection of World Cultural and Heritage 1972 under which different historical monuments and sites of Pakistan had been placed on the world heritage list and the Rome Statute of 1998.

All systems of law, which cherished individual freedom and liberty, provided constitutional safeguards and guarantees from any invasion of such freedom, the petition said.

In the joint appeal filed in the Supreme Court on behalf of the Punjab government, senior counsel Khawaja Haris had argued that the contract for civil works on the OLMT project was time bound and, therefore, their completion within the stipulated time was essential.

The scope of civil works involved construction of a metro train corridor (27.1km), including elevated U-shaped viaduct (25.4km), underground section (1.72km), 26 stations (24 elevated and two underground), depots and stabling yards, the appeal said, adding that under the commercial contract the provincial government and its agencies were under obligation to hand over the civil works to the Chinese contractor within 10 months of the commencement date of the contract.

In case of failure, it argued, the Chinese contractor would be entitled to recover liquidated damages at a rate of 0.02 per cent of the contract price of civil works.

Besides, the appeal said, Rs26.8bn of the public money already spent on the civil works would go to waste, adding that if the high court judgement was not suspended the general public and the provincial government would suffer heavily.

Published in Dawn October 11th, 2016