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After almost a month long roads block n sticking in traffic jams I took a sigh of relief on open entry in Davis Road, the only road to my office.Razing the multi storied Plazas , constructed in violation of building bylaws n approval of structural designs, is being considered as the worst ever decision of Punjab Govt especially in the time of crisis & financial loss due to deficit budget of 80 billions besides it stayed a constant reason for bottle necked traffic jams n wastage of several working hours. After all ours is not a Western country where people use to count time in terms of dollars. The funniest thing is the blocked roads are being used car parking for visitors in press club…what an alternative social utility Demolishing illegal plazas n buildings in garb of SC orders is a controversial act as, like so many others, people have so many reservations n doubts regarding the transparency n fair campaign credibility of razing the buildings. Previously some influential builders including the brother in law of federal finance minister Shakut Treen secretly got stay orders n convinced the bulldozer persons to raze the building safely not making enough loss. Similarly there is no guarantee whether LDA has favored some or not rather random news stories & a survey has much to tell … According to media reports Supreme Court has ordered to demolish the plazas worth Rs 700 billion n around 1 trillion has to be spent in razing these unfortunate high rise buildings so Rs1.7 trillion rupee are at stake along with the fate of poor owners n shopkeepers as the builders have made their way after earning huge profits. Let’s see the effectees can get their checks, given by the authorities, cashed to write a new history. On behalf of the owners n builders, noted lawyer Aitzaz Ahsan challenged the SC decision as based on wrong reports n survey made by LDA n that Govt is applying a particular decision on generals. But since SC dismissed the Plea LDA & CDLG has gone rampage, after secretly preparing a list of 8000 buildings, in razing the plazas that if continued on targeted 70 % of the buildings, The capital city will present an after war sight as city of of rubbles. The most targeted area is Gulberg…total buildings to be demolished partly (402) or completely (149) but then commissioned waived the punishment for 160 buildings. In the report commission recommended 559 buildings & LDA, CDGL prepared a list of 291 buildings but surprisingly or most aptly shockingly 260 buildings including in ShahAalmi market has been skipped from the list All Parties Conference has issued a unanimous decision to stop the demolishing campaign n has warned of sit in demos in favor of their demands…Government wants to set a precedence to ban such violations but it could have been done by punishing heavily through pockets that is by charging fines that could fetch millions (at least 50 millions) to stabilize the drowning economy & further by charging amount to legalize these illegal buildings. Govt has arrested some LDA officials as well on negligence n corruption charges but it is of no use as it’s a golden rule of “repeated implementations are necessary than one long order n ordinance” that has been violated. So government should also share the responsibility n should save the beautiful capital city …for further updates seehttp://www.nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online/Regional/Lahore/08-Oct-2008/CM-not-directed-LDA-to-demolish-buildingsalso seehttp://www.nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online/print/Regional/27-Jun-2008/45-highrise-buildings-to-be-completely-demolishedhttp://pakteahouse.wordpress.com/2009/07/18/lahore-development-authoritys-actions-illegal-lahore-bachao-tehreek/http://realestatepropertyinpakistan.wordpress.com/2009/01/17/plazas-to-be-demolished-in-jubilee-town-of-lahore/
