The Lahore High Court has adjourned till October 05 the proceedings in some identical petitions filed against sealing of flower shops by Miani Sahib Graveyard administration as law officer informed the court that the matter would be resolved within one month.
Flower-shops owners in their petitions sought court directions for restoration of their shops sealed under the drive of removing encroachment from the graveyard. Petitioners Shah Din, Wasim Sharif, Muhammad Asif, Muhammad Ijaz, Muhammad Ishaq and Basharat Ali submitted that they were running their shops at the Lytton Road, outside Miani Sahib Graveyard for the last 30 years. They also contended that they took possession of these shops as tenants of graveyard administration.
Further, in 1992 the graveyard administration, after demolishing the structure of the shops, rebuilt the present shops and rent them out to them, the petitioners wrote. In addition, they submitted that earlier, the administration also tried to get the shops vacated but the shop owners were allowed stay from a civil judge. However, on July 28, 2008, personnel of the administration accompanied by some policemen, forcefully got the shops vacated without any prior notice.
The shop owners also wrote in the petition that the police overlooked even the stay order and sealed the shops illegally with malafide intentions and in violation of the court orders.