LAHORE: Lahore High Court (LHC) Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed on Tuesday admitted for regular hearing and granted an interim stay on a petition challenging the commercialisation and conversion fee imposed by the Lahore Development Authority (LDA).
On the petition filed by Tahir Zia, the court as an interim order, required the petitioners to deposit six percent of the conversion fee and stayed the authority from resorting to any coercive action against them.
The petition, filed through Muhammad Azhar Siddique, challenged the said fee inter-alia on the grounds that according to law, LDA did not have the authority to impose such fee or declare a property as a commercial one. But the LDA was competent to levy the ‘betterment fee’ for the purpose of improving the living conditions of an area.
According to details, the petitioners had inherited a 50-year-old house in Gulberg, which was being used by four families and they had started a small personal business on the premises.
The petitioners had been regularly paying the annual commercialisation fee to the LDA for the whole property. But the fee was increased seven times last year, which according to the petitioners was unjust and illegal. The petitioners could not pay the fees, as their financial assets were limited and moved the court in order to cancel the fee.
According to the petitioners, they would have to either take loan or sell their property for paying the fee. The petitioners could not sell the property, as cases concerning it were pending in courts.
Siddiqui argued that by imposing the fee, the fundamental rights of the petitioners under articles 9, 16, 23, 24 and 25 of the constitution were being violated, which would deprive the petitioners of their property. He said that according to Article 8 of the constitution, if the said fee was imposed, the article would become redundant.
He said that the main purpose for imposing the fee was to eliminate small traders. After hearing the arguments, the court admitted the petition for regular hearing and granted interim relief to the petitioners.
