ISLAMABAD: Supreme Court of Pakistan on Monday suspended Lahore High Court (LHC) verdict declaring Ravi Riverfront Urban Development Project as illegal while the apex court has allowed the Punjab government to continue work on the project.
The hearing on annulling the Ravi Urban Development project by the Lahore High Court was held at SC. Justice Aijaz Ul Ahsan questioned that what is a fault in LHC verdict.
However, Advocate General Punjab Ahmed Owais could not answer the judge question. Over which Justice Aijaz Ul Ahsan reprimanded the Punjab government legal team over appearing before the court without any preparation and said that you people don’t know what is the case all about.
Counsel of Ravi Urban Development Authority apprised the court that petiioner were housing societies in the LHC, to which, Justice Mazahir Naqvi said that `conflict of interests of housing socities is clear.
After hearing arguments from both the side the top court suspending the LHC verdict allowed partially the Punjab government to continue the work on the project as well as issued notices to all parties over the government appeals
.
SC remarked that government can continue work on the pieces of land where payments have been made to the owners; however no development work can be done on land where payment is still pending.
Earlier Punjab government had approached Supreme Court against verdict of LHC in Ravi Riverfront Urban Development Project case.
The provincial government, in its plea states that all rules and regulations were followed before starting the project. The plea prayed the court to set aside verdict of high court.
It merits mention that the LHC had scrapped Ravi Riverfront Urban Development Project of the government by declaring several provisions of the Ravi Urban Development Authority (Ruda) Act 2020 unconstitutional.
Announcing a reserved judgement on multiple petitions, Justice Shahid Karim also declared the acquisition of agricultural land for the project unconstitutional and in violation of the fundamental rights of citizens.
