A full bench of the Lahore High Court here on Wednesday asked Lahore Development Authority (LDA) to justify urgency being shown in construction of "Elevated Expressway" from Gulberg to Motorway II interchange on Thursday (today). The bench was hearing a number of petitions challenging construction of the expressway and process of land acquisition for Rs 27 billion project.
During the course of hearing, the counsel for LDA Salman Mansoor argued that the construction of the elevated expressway was a public welfare project. He said the project was a mandate of the executive and the court should not take judicial review of the matter. The counsel stated that affected people of the project had appropriate forums for legal remedy under Punjab Land Acquisition Act. He said cases relating to compensation against acquisition of land could be taken civil courts. The bench observed that apparently the government had no convincing ground for acquiring land on the pretext of urgency.
The bench, however, asked the counsel to apprise about the reasons for the construction of the expressway. The bench had been hearing arguments of lawyers representing the government, petitioners and amicus curie as well on the scope and nature of urgency required to invoke Section 17 of the Land Acquisition Act.
The petitioners submitted that the government had imposed an emergency like situation and had been acquiring land under section 17 from general public by demolishing their homes to build the expressway. They submitted that the government, however, could not covey them the reasons behind this urgency. The petitioners, therefore, prayed to the court to set aside the project and acquisition of their land.