LAHORE: The federal government today refused to submit international agreement signed between Pakistan and China for Orange line train project before a division bench of the Lahore High Court merely for being sensitive.
As hearing commenced, law officers on behalf of the federal government appeared before the two-member bench headed by Justice Abid Aziz Sheikh and said that they could not submit agreement in open court for being confidential and sensitive in nature but can present this agreement before the judges in chamber.
However, the court dismissed the plea of the federal government and ordered the law officers to submit copy of the agreement in the open court on the next hearing. The court adjourned further hearing for Tuesday.
Earlier, the counsel of civil society Advocate Azhar Siddique told the bench that Pak-China agreement was not transparent. The project was of billions of rupees but it was not taken to the legislative assembly for debate on it. The government used funds of other projects on Orange Line project. The budget fixed for education and health as well as other departments was also spent on this project, he said. He said the government spent billions of rupees from the public exchequer and did not do proper planning before starting it.
Previously, the court sought international agreement on Orange Line Project from the federal government and also directed the Punjab government to submit complete record of PC I. How this project was initiated and which was the executing agency were the details which were sought earlier by the court.
The counsel of the petitioners had submitted that the whole project was started without proper working and plan and based on malafide intentions. He said that the project was destroying cultural landscape and it was damaging the beauty of Lahore—once a city of gardens. Many historical monuments were under threats while thousands of people were losing their homes and business coming in the route of Orange line metro train, he said. He also said that many of the victims of the project were not being paid proper compensation. Beside it, it was causingenvironmental problems to the city as many gardens and open areas were being damaged for it, said the counsel.
On January 28, division bench headed by Justice Abid Aziz Sheikh stayed construction of $1.6 billion Orange Line Project within 200 feet of 11 historical sites of the city after the government’s lawyer failed to give reasons behind the change of route of the project.
The places where further work has been disallowed are near Lakashmi building, Shalamar Garden, GPO Chowk, Aiwan-i-Auqaf, Shah Charagh building, Supreme Court registry, Saint Andrew Church, Baba Mauj Darya’s shrine, Ghulabi Bagh, Bhudhu ka Awa, Chauburji and tomb of Zeb-un-Nisa.
Cecil and Iris Chaudhry foundation, Judicial Activism Panel (JAP), Lahore Bacahao Tehreek and some members of the civil society including Kamil Khan Mumtaz, I.A. Rehman and Neelum Hussain are the petitioners who challenged the project before the court. They submitted $1.6 b project was also not approved by the Punjab Assembly. They said the project put heritage of the Lahore city on stake as 26 historical and protected monuments including Shalimar Garden, General Post Office, Supreme Court-Lahore registry, Lahore High Court and Chauburji were going to lose their significance.
They said the government was utilizing funds allocated for other sectors like education and health for the project of metro train. Unesco also opposed the project for being a serious threat to environment and other reasons, they said.
The petitioners prayed the court to suspend all process including initiation of Orange Line Project, demolition, building of any part, and as well as allocation and spending of funds pertaining to the project till decision of the petition.
In another case of embezzlement of Rs 13 billion in purchase of electricity transformers , NAB Prosecutor Arif Mehmood Rana changed his claim that it was embezzlement of Rs 7 billion before a division bench of the Lahore High Court yesterday. The surprising change in NAB’s stance came after period of five years. Mr. Arif Mehmood Rana, NAB prosecutor, appeared before a division bench headed by Justice Mehmood Maqbool Bajwa and badly failed to do counter argument on pre-arrest bail of accused MD Rasool Khan Mehsood. He said Mr. Mehsood was MD PEPCO when he wrote letters to different companies for the purchase of transformers but when asked to provide relevant material he failed saying that he needed more time to present certain documents.
At least, Rs 13 billions were embezzled in purchase of electricity transformers allegedly by the officials of NTDC, PEPCO and others five years ago.
Former engineer of NTDCL Anayat Hussain was on bail while MD PEPCO Rasool Khan Mehsood was on interim bail. Mr. Mehsood had filed pre-arrest bail and submitted that he was not involved in embezzlement. He said NAB intentionally implicated him for the reasons best known to them. He requested the court to order his release on bail.