Lahore High Court (LHC) Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed on Thursday reprimanding the Shalimar town municipal officer (TMO) on giving ambiguous statements on the plan of making a greenbelt in Shadbagh Scheme-II into a food street, directed him to submit his statement on oath through an affidavit.
The petition was filed by Moin Ahmed, through counsel Azhar Siddique, challenging construction of a food street by abandoning a greenbelt. He said that the action was a clear violation of fundamental rights of citizens and against the Local Government Ordinance 2001. On being summoned, Shalimar TMO Khawar Jalil appeared in court but the judge expressed annoyance on the fact that for the last four hearing dates, the court is waiting for a reply from him.
TMO’s counsel Asadullah Siddiqui argued that no food street is being set up on the greenbelt in Shadbagh Scheme-II but work is in progress to upgrade the greenbelt. To a question about work on the greenbelt, the TMO gave an unclear statement on which the judge rebuked him for trying to hide facts. Punjab Assistant Advocate General Shujaat Ali Khan told the court that the TMO was called by the Lahore commissioner and DCO to explain the facts about the said greenbelt in Shadbagh Scheme-II but he did not meet the officials concerned.
The situation became tense when the TMO said that the petitioner had no personal grievance regarding the work on the greenbelt. Siddique said that Rs 6 million from the national exchequer are being wasted on the so-called greenbelt up gradation project. The TMO’s counsel said that the amount is yet to be sanctioned and nothing is being done on the site. The judge told the TMO that he should keep in mind that being a government official, he is taking salary from the money of the taxpayers and the petitioner is also one of them and he had every right to know about any development work going on in any area.
The judge warned the TMO that if he tried to hide the facts, the Punjab chief secretary will be summoned in court and he (TMO) will also face contempt of court proceedings. The judge observed that greenbelts in city limits are of great importance for public health and citizens have every right to move court against any grievance while officials are answerable to courts during hearing of such public-related matters. The TMO apologised to the court on which the judge let him go with directions to submit his statement on an affidavit on the next date hearing revealing all facts about the greenbelt project.
