Black coats won’t let anyone manage parking stands

The district government appears to have lost its control of Court Street by Aiwan-e-Adal at Lower Mall where the Lahore Bar Council (LBC) lawyers are managing the parking lots, encroaching upon a substantial amount of thoroughfares, resulting in regular traffic jams on the avenue.
Sources within the district government told Pakistan Today that City District Government Lahore (CDGL)’s attempt to handover parking lots to contractors through a legal procedure was thwarted by the lawyers of LBC who now run the show at the venue.
“Even the police could not bridle the lawyers who scared away the contractors in a bid to gain control of the parking stands. The district administration was left with no option but to let lawyers manage the parking stands around Aiwan-e-Adal. Since then lawyers are managing all operations at the site,” said an official at the DCO office.
“Lawyers have not only mocked the writ of the law by illegally gaining control of the parking sites and encroaching upon the roads but their ineffective management has also resulted in persistent traffic jams at Lower Mall.”
Another official in the DCO office said that the government had entrusted the responsibility of managing parking stands in the city to Lahore Parking Company (LePark) which had failed to run the affairs smoothly.
“The loss of revenue which the government is incurring every month owing to district government’s failure in managing parking stands is colossal. The lawyers are comfortably banking on all the money from the stands while the district government is helpless in this regard.”
TRAFFIC MESS: Owing to these encroachments on the Lower Mall, citizens are regularly faced with hardships in accessing public offices in the area including Election Commission of Pakistan, Evacuee Trust Property Board, Commissioner’s Office, Post Master General Office and many other semi government and private offices.
Three to four lanes of motorcycles, motor cars and other vehicles are seen parked at the stands, impeding the traffic flow.
“It took me almost an hour to get my car parked and reach Aiwan-e-Adal in the morning and now I am going through the same drill to get my car out. I don’t understand why the government cannot properly manage these parking stands. Road is certainly not a place to park cars,” said Abbas, 35, a citizen at Court Street.
WE ARE DOING OUR BEST: Commenting over the situation, LePark spokesman Fasihud Din said, “We are gradually taking control of the parking lots in the city. The matter of parking lots around the courts is under discussion and a final decision will be taken next month in a meeting between the Lahore commissioner, DCO and LePark management.”
DCO spokesman Imran Maqbool, confirming the control of parking lots around courts by LBC, said that it was an administrative decision taken some years back and the district administration was getting a meager amount of money from LBC on account of managing the parking lots.
However, he admitted that matter needed immediate attention since the situation had changed considering the formation of LePark, which was now responsible for managing the stands.
LBC President Muhammad Nauman was not available for comments.