The Supreme Court on Thursday directed the Lahore Development Authority (LDA) to restore within 10 days a park of Gulberg to its original condition wherein a road was built to facilitate the residence of former finance minister Ishaq Dar. Chief Justice of Pakistan Mian Saqib Nisar had taken a suo motu notice against the encroachment of the park in H Block of Gulberg III to convert a single-lane road into double-lane outside the residence of Ishaq Dar. Earlier, the Director General LDA appeared before the court and conceded that the former finance minister had requested him on behalf of the community to construct the road.
However, he had no answer when asked to justify the utilization of a public park to construct the road. To another court's query, the DG said around Rs 2 million had been incurred on the construction of the road.
Chief Justice Nisar observed with regret that the bureaucracy had become personal servant of the political rulers.
"What kind of officer you are? Who allowed encroachment of a park only to please a minister," the chief justice asked the LDA's chief. At one point, the chief justice decided to refer the matter to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), however, the court restrained as the DG LDA repeatedly tendered his apology.
The CJP also issued notices to DG LDA and Ishaq Dar for April 07 to decide whether the amount to be incurred on the restoration should be recovered from the LDA chief or the former finance minister.
Comments
Comments are closed.