Chief Justice of Pakistan Mian Saqib Nisar said on Tuesday that the Army should restrict itself to building housing societies only for its soldiers, instead of undertaking commercial real estate ventures.
He made the observation in a suo motu case regarding removal of billboards in Lahore.
Earler, the top judge questioned the role of Pakistan Army in the real estate sector of the economy, asking when exactly did the army start undertaking property deals and developing commercial real estate. He said billions of rupees were made from allotment and transfer of land and asked where was the Defence Housing Authority (DHA) Lahore spending all its revenue. No spokesperson from the DHA Lahore was present in the court to respond.
On Tuesday, the CJP issued a notice to DHA Lahore, and asked it as well as the Cantonment boards, Pakistan Railways and the National Logistics Cell (NLC) to submit responses in 10 days, explaining who gave them permission to put up billboards in their jurisdictions.
During the hearing, the CJP asked the Lahore Commissioner to issue a notice to these organisations to remove all billboards. He said the court should be prompted in case the respondents failed to comply with directions.
Earlier, responding to the CJP’s question, Parks and Horticulture Authority (PHA) additional director Naheed Gul Baloch maintained that the authority had not put up a single billboard since 2010, when it removed 1,304 billboards from across the city.
He said the existing billboards in the city had been put up in the jurisdictions of the Pakistan Railways, NLC, and the National Highways Authority, besides Cantonment and DHA areas.
On this, the CJP asked if the PHA lacked authority to act on violations in these areas. The additional DG said that the authority was already fighting a legal battle over the issue, adding that when the issue was raised, the civic bodies and the federal entities took the plea that they would go for litigation.
Latif Khosa, the counsel for the Cantonment Board, said that 30 per cent of the expenditure of Cantonment Hospital was coming from billboards’ revenues. He claimed that the Cantt board was not getting any funding from the government and was bearing the cost of utilities on its own.
The PHA officer told the court that the authority wasn’t getting any funds for renovations of parks either.
On this, the CJP asked both officials, “If you’re not taking funds, does it mean you can open a casino [to make money]?”
Justice Umar Ata Bandial observed that there were billboards put up in the city playing advertisement videos, posing a threat to road safety.
The CJP referred to banners put up along The Mall with Punjab governor-designate Chaudhry Sarwar’s image on them, and asked, “Who gave permission to put up the banners?” He said that the Lahore mayor should be informed about the matter so that the banners could be removed.
The hearing of the case was postponed till the last week of September.
Published in Daily Times, September 5th 2018.
