Court cancels property ownership bar by LDA

LAHORE – Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed of the Lahore High Court on Wednesday set aside a notification earlier issued by the Lahore Development Authority through which property ownerships/titles of several Model Town Extension residents were cancelled.

The issued disposing of petitions of the residents set aside the impunged notification and directed the Director Land Development-II, LDA, to hear the petitioners on May 14 and decide the matter afresh strictly in accordance with law and through a speaking order.

On previous hearing the court had restrained LDA from taking any coercive action against petitioners who challenged cancellation of their properties ownership by the authority.

Tariq Javed, Anjum Nazir Butt, Atif Iqbal, Muhammad Tauhid, Ms. Nusrat Naseem and others filed petitions through counsel Rana Asadullah Khan and Shahzad Shaukat.

Petitioners stated that being subsequent buyers they had purchased plots in model town extension which the LDA had established in 1996 after acquiring private land. Later they also constructed houses on the plots.

They said all the transactions of the property purchase were on record with the department concerned and all required dues were deposited in the name of director estate management of the LDA. The petitioners said national accountability bureau had initiated an inquiry against the LDA officers for their alleged irregularities in allotment of the plots in model town extension.

In the light of NAB inquiry, the LDA cancelled the ownership/title of their properties and also started dispossessing them without any notice or granting opportunity of hearing. Demolishing work was also started on properties of many residents, but they obtained stay orders from civil courts.