LDA files cases against 241 illegal housing schemes in Lahore.

LAHORE: The Lahore Development Authority (LDA) on Tuesday informed the Lahore High Court (LHC) of police cases registered against as many as 241 illegal housing schemes found involved in the violation of greenbelts.

A single-judge bench comprising LHC Chief Justice Muhammad Qasim Khan resumed hearing in a petition against the establishment of 557 housing societies on greenbelts.

Justice Khan said the housing regulator was only completing formalities for the court.

The petitioner said the LDA failed to act against the schemes despite the court orders. “The cases are in courts since 2015 but the LDA has failed to recover even an inch of the encroached land,” the petitioner observed.

“A better environment is the constitutional right of every citizen, if the LDA director general cannot assist the court, I will constitute a commission,” the judge said.

“If you can act against the societies, inform the court tomorrow (Wednesday), otherwise the court will constitute a commission,” the court said.

Subsequently, the judge directed the LDA Director General Zahid Akhtar Zaman and Vice-Chairman Amir Asghar Dar to appear before the court along with the relevant record and called for keeping the amnesty schemes extended to the societies on hold.