The Lahore district administration has served notices to the managements of 24 petrol pumps established on the state land despite cancellation of their leases, media reports said on Friday.
In a recent Supreme Court order, Punjab government and the district government have been instructed to take over and auction all 24 petrol pumps being run illegally.
The district administration in its notices directed the petrol pump managements to sell their petroleum stocks by the first week of next month otherwise the authorities will take hold of the land and seal the petrol pumps.
It said that the district administration would not be bound to stay orders of courts after the ruling of the Supreme Court of Pakistan.
The Lahore deputy commissioner had directed assistant commissioners to serve notices to the illegal petrol pumps managements in their jurisdiction.
The administration has also ordered displaying banners at these petrol pumps about closure of petroleum sales on February 05.
In a report submitted by the Lahore DC to the top court, it was said that there were 32 petrol pumps established on the state land in the provincial capital. “Four of them were established on the land of Municipal Corporation of Lahore (MCL), while 20 were on the land of the provincial government.”
It was further mentioned that land of remaining eight pumps had already been acquired by the authorities for the Orange Line Metro Train project.
The DC pointed out that owners of all 24 pumps had not been vacating the land for several years, though their leases had expired.
The bench observed that the court would not allow misappropriation of the state land and ordered the DC to immediately seal the petrol pumps and auction them.
Published in Daily Times, January 26th 2019.
