Daily Times

LAHORE: Ages old encroachments from the two main gates of the Walled City, Lahore, Sheranwala and Kashmiri Gates have been removed during an aggressive operation, held on Monday, by the Building Control Department of the Walled City of Lahore Authority (WCLA), Daily Times learnt.

Further, WCLA has also been provided with dedicated police force for carrying out the operations against the illegal constructions and encroachments inside the Walled City of Lahore, as per the directions of the Chief Justice of Lahore High Court. The police force of 10 includes Superintendent Inspector Rizwan Iqbal, Assistant Superintendent Inspector Khalil Ahmed and other policemen Asad, Siddique, Mumraiz, Munawar, Altaf, Rasheed, Ejaz and Ameer.

It was discovered that ever since the police force was deputed, which was last Friday, the WCLA Building Control Department had started aggressive operations inside the Walled City and was able to get Sheranwala and Kashmiri Gates vacated which were under illegal possession of the local land mafia since long. Moreover, 11 plazas were partially demolished.

A total of 66 marlas of land from Akbari Gate were recovered from the encroachers and encroachments from the Chunna Mandi Chowk were also removed by WCLA.

WCLA Building Control Assistant Director Ahmed Usman Diwan, who is spearheading the operations said, “I think with the police force, our Building Control Department will gain strength. We have served notices to almost 40 to 50 illegal construction owners which also include the plaza owners, for personal hearing as per our ACT, before starting the partial or permanent demolition. In partial demolition as well, we demolish the building to an extent that it is no more usable and has to be demolished by the owner later. I think our operations will now be much aggressive and successful as we have the police force on board and in the last few days we have shown the impact. Previously it was difficult for us to carry out an operation without the police support but now people of Walled City have received a message and do not mess with us anymore. The land mafia is also alert now. If somebody creates any problem during the operation, we lodge an FIR against them for intervening in the government matters, as per law, and so far, two to three such cases have been lodged.”

WCLA Administration Director Shahid Nadeem while talking exclusively to Daily Times said that the force was provided to WCLA last Thursday.

“We wanted to strengthen the Building Control Department since long, as it is the backbone of WCLA and is very much needed to save the heritage. We had been demanding for a dedicated police force since 2013, as per WCLA ACT which was passed in 2012 by the Punjab Assembly, but the case was pending. In the subsequent years too, WCLA had been requesting the government for the dedicated police force to carry out the operations against illegal constructions as police force was necessary for supporting the staff during operations. WCLA had previously tried carrying out operations inside the Walled City but those were not successful due to lack of police support. Recently on the directions of the Honourable CJ LHC, WCLA received the police force of 10 officials and since then, the Building Control Team is effectively working on site for the demolition of illegal constructions and removal of encroachments. I think carrying out such operations was not possible without the support of the police and I am sure that the building control department will be working more efficiently now,” he said.

Talking to different residents and locals of the Walled City, Daily Times learnt that there were more than 600 illegal constructions inside the Walled City which were damaging the original and historic fabric of the city along with the neighbourhoods. The locals said that their houses were under threat because of the high rise plazas being constructed in narrow streets.

Published in Daily Times, June 26^th 2018.