| Lawyer says govt told to ensure farmers are not deprived of agricultural lands
| Asked RUDA to return money it had acquired for the project
From Abid Usman
LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) declared the Ravi Urban Development Project unconstitutional on Tuesday, directing the Ravi Urban Development Authority (RUDA) to return money it had acquired for the project to the Punjab government.
In his decision that was reserved on Dec 21 last year, Justice Shahid Karim said RUDA failed to prepare a master plan in accordance with the law. He added that any scheme without a master plan is contrary to the constitution.
According to the LHC judge, Section 4 of the RUDA Amendment Ordinance violated Article 144 and the ordinance itself was unconstitutional. The judge said the agricultural land could only be acquired when there are proper legal mechanism is in place.
During the previous hearing after which the judgment was reserved, the petitioners’ counsel had said that sections 29-31 of the RUDA Act pertaining to the land acquisition were contrary to Article 24 of the Constitution. He said there was no comparison between RUDA and the Lahore Development Authority (LDA).
LDA counsel Waqar A Sheikh argued that the LDA chairperson was the chief minister of Punjab. “The LDA board also comprises public representatives but public representation has been ignored in RUDA,” he added. The powers of the public representatives have been given to the non-elected representatives in RUDA, the counsel said, adding that the RUDA Act was against the democratic principles.
RUDA ‘s counsel apprised the court that the provincial assembly had passed the RUDA budget and that all requirements were met before the project started.
Petitioners’ counsel had informed the court that the agricultural land was being acquired to build the Ravi city, even though Lahore was one of the most polluted cities in the world.
The petitioners had also requested the court to take the smog factor into account while hearing the case against RUDA. They had also asked the court to direct the respondents to perform their statutory obligations and to take precautionary measures against smog.
After the ruling, Amicus Curiae Aaminah Qadir in a tweet said that the LHC struck down the RUDA ordinance because it was “offensive to the environment law”.
“LHC has declared that govt should pass laws to ensure agricultural lands of farmers are not acquired depriving them of their right to property.
