The administration of the Lahore High Court (LHC), keeping in view the prevalent security threats, has decided to demolish decades-old servant quarters in the court premises. But there is another side to the story: anonymous sources have told media that the authorities want to build a 10-storey building in place of these quarters.
The mentioned building served as a residence for the lowly-paid employees of the LHC since 1978. Twenty-four such apartments are built next to the office of the Accountant General Punjab while another 12 are positioned alongside the Shah Chiragh shrine within the court premises, covering an area of 550,000 square feet.
An employee of the court told media that the tenants have been ‘ordered’ to leave the quarters as owing to security concerns, they are needed to be demolished. The court administration had told the dwellers to vacate the area till Sunday acting on the advice of city police which showed concern that these quarters can prove to be a threat to the security of the court.
Six neighbouring shops have already been torn down while the post office, offices of the building department, panel room as well as the oath commissioners’ shed would also be demolished.
The LHC administration back in August 2015 drafted a plan to build a four-story building at this place and use that for housing of courtrooms and administrative offices.
Even though there is a dire need of courtrooms, this plan did not meet its logical end as it was impractical for judges to access this building frequently. LHC’s building department told media that a separate building would be constructed to accommodate the judges.
The 10-storey building is to house all administrative offices of the LHC, including the Member Inspection Team office, copy branch, building branch, computer branch, establishment branch, security branch and all offices of assistant registrars, deputy registrars and additional registrars.
According to sources, the oath commissioners shed will be built where quarters adjacent to the Shah Chiragh shrine stand now.
The Punjab government’s architectural department has been asked to turn over the building plan to the LHC in order to initiate construction, an official of the building department of LHC said. The architectural features of the building will remain same as the old LHC building.
The plan is to be done with the construction within this fiscal year and open it before LHC Chief Justice Mansoor Ali Shah is transferred to the Supreme Court.
Section 10 of the Antiquities Act of 1975 states, the LHC building is a protected site; and under Section 11 of the Punjab Special Premises (Preservation) Ordinance 1985, “No development plan or scheme or new construction on or within a distance of 200 feet of special premises shall be undertaken or executed except with the approval of the government.”
LHC spokesperson expressed his inability to give an official version when he was asked for comments on the issue.
Police department on inquiry said that it was not aware of any threat alerts regarding the residential quarters, and the LHC administration is the concerned authority to comment on the matter. They have also said that the department had no idea about the security threats to the LHC and demolition of quarters on this pretext.
