The Lahore High Court while hearing a petition against transformation of recreational park of Lahore Press Club Housing Society into residential plots, remarked here Tuesday that getting plots in the society was the right of every club member.
The court further observed that conversation or shifting of the park was a secondary issue and directed LPC president Sarmad Bashir and an assistant advocate general Shan Gull to ensure acquisition of additional land to accommodate all those members who were not allotted plots in the society.
The court asked Sarmad to concentrate on providing plots to the club members first as the issue of park or development work could be resolved later. He said the court would take up the issue itself if development work was not done in the society and encroachments were not removed. The court adjourned the hearing to September 21 and directed the LPC president and Punjab government counsel to do the needful for acquisition of additional land for residential plots in the meantime.
The petitioner, a journalist Din Muhammad Dard, submitted that the LPC body distributed forms among the number of members to provide them plots in the park disturbing the master plan in violation of the law. The petitioner through his counsel contended, land once fixed for developing a park for the residents of the colony couldn't be shifted to any other purpose.
He pointed out that adjacent to existing housing scheme huge private land is lying vacant from which acquisition of 581 Kanals 16 marlas land had not only been proposed for phase-II of housing scheme but initial notification under section 4 of Land acquisition Act has also been issued in May 2007. He said this land would be a better place for allotment of plots to new council members of Lahore Press Club.
He said under rules 10 of Punjab Private Housing Schemes and Land sub-division Rules 2010 a housing scheme should have open space seven percent or more while public buildings should be upon the areas ranging from five to ten percent. He said conversion of park into residential plots would also violate said provision. The court on January 21 last had restrained converting park into residential plots.