OUR STAFF REPORTER LAHORE The Lahore High Court on Monday restrained Lahore Development Authority (LDA) from taking any coercive action against several residents of Model Town Extension who challenged cancellation of their properties ownership by the authority. Admitting the petitions to regular hearing, Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed issued notices to LDA authorities and directed them to file reply by May 4. LDAs counsel Salman Mansoor who was present in the court received the notice. Tariq Javed, Anjum Nazir Butt, Atif Iqbal, Muhammad Tauhid, Ms. Nusrat Naseem and others filed petitions through counsels 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. Petitioners said national accountability bureau (NAB) had initiated an inquiry against 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 title/ownership 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. Petitioners pleaded that the order of the LDA canceling the ownership of their properties and subsequent actions were illegal, arbitrary and violative of principles of natural justice. They prayed to the court to set aside the impugned order of the LDA and restrain it from taking any illegal action against their properties.