LAHORE: Over nine towns of Lahore are victims to the illegal constructions, which Lahore’s lord mayor, deputy commissioner and other authorities have paid no heed to, ignoring the chief minister’s orders.
Data Town, Ravi Town, Gulberg towns, Bhatti Town are witnessing an increase in high-rise building constructions with no regard for the environment and people of the area. The encroacher mafia has even started construction on sewage nullah in the area. Town authorities are indifferent to it; there is no mechanism to discourage the construction of commercial buildings in the residential areas despite the new local bodies system introduced by Shehbaz Sharif’s government.
Due to a poor performance on part of Lord Mayor Mubashir Javed, illegal construction in the city is on the rise. The deputy mayor of Lahore is taking bribes in millions of rupees to skip the formal procedures for the desired ones.
Under the aegis of Samanabad Zone deputy mayor, on LOS Ganda Naala near Rasool Park Road, a plaza on 2 kanal of land is being constructed without blueprints or payment of commercialisation fee, and instead of a parking lot in the building, a basement is under construction.
TOR Haris Jalil, Inspector Liaquat and zonal administration had no clue of the matter.
At Rasool Park main road in Samanabad, the construction work on the two-kanal-plaza is underway; however, according to by-laws, a permission from the metropolitan corporation is needed before any commercial construction along with an NOC from the chief minister. But the deputy mayor of Samanabad, defying the CM’s orders, had permitted the construction work without any regard for the formalities.
Samanabad authorities say that this road is not commercialised by the government so there is no need of commercial fee, and the blueprints of the building are in process; however, the construction on the plaza have been stopped.
Deputy Mayor Mian Tariq, by taking the lord mayor, Chief Officer Masood Mehmood and Planning Officer Muhammad Saleem in confidence, had issued the license by-passing the existing construction laws. He assured all the concerned departments that they will get their fair share of the bargain, which assures no interference from the authorities or hindrance in the illegal construction work.
Metropolitan Planning Officer Muhammad Saleem said he was unaware of any construction work at Rasool Park Road; in fact, he only came to know of it from the scribe.
On the other hand, in Data Town, a person named Haji Jameel is involved in construction of a basement and a building hand in hand with the concerned authorities. In Shalimar Town, the TMO has taken millions rupees in bribe for allowing the unlawful constructions. Similarly, Ravi Town’s planning officer Sohail Perviaz has allowed illegal commercial construction in the residential areas of the Union Council 9 and 15 for hefty bribes.
Samanabad Town Officer Mudassir Haider was not available for comments despite several attempt, same goes for the Ravi Town planning officer. When Pakistan Today tried to talk to the lord mayor of Lahore, his staff officer Kashif hung up on the scribe saying that the mayor is busy in a meeting.
