Lahore: MTS to pull down botanical gardens for bus station?

[LRE]

If we don't start speaking up against such moves, we will soon have no more green spaces left in our cities.

MTS to pull down botanical gardens for bus station?

* Model Town employees forcibly enter nursery premises with bulldozers * International organisations, residents condemn move

By Afnan Khan

LAHORE: The Model Town Society administration on Tuesday forcibly entered the premises of a nursery in the society and started cutting down trees and plants,
sources told Daily Times.

Mian Abrar, owner of the nursery that is located in J Block Model Town, told Daily Times that they had recently won a case against MTS administration, but
the administrators, along with local police, forcibly entered the nursery premises and started cutting trees and plants. He said that the nursery had been
started by his ancestors family before partition and it had “taken generations of care to maintain this jewel”.

He added that the issue of the tearing down of one of oldest nurseries in the country had received international attention because the gardens contained
more then 15,000 plants including many rare species, adding that the civil court had already issued contempt of court notices to the Model Town administration
for trying to pull down the nursery.

He said that a number of MTS residents and other citizens had also urged the administration not to remove the precious botanical gardens but they have decided
to cut down the precious plants and replace the nursery with a bus stand. The owner added that there were rumours that MTS officials had already signed
a deal with a multinational bus service to provide them the nursery land for the bus station. He said that the nursery’s owners have already paid the rent
to the administration in advance and there lease agreement was already throw by 2014 but some of the MTS officials had gone greedy and they are violating
all legal and ethical norms to make money as soon as possible. He said that Environment Studies Department of the California State University, CHICO has
also given a green signal that the university would establish an environmental sciences and horticultural studies research centre at the nursery due to
its significance in the country while a number of local and international rights organizations have also condemned the MTS authorities for brutally erasing
the precious trees in the nursery.

MTS President Col ® Tahir Kardar abstained from commenting on the issue. However, it is reported that he has previously told the media that “the land
of the nursery belonged to the MTS and they will never let anyone to occupy it forever.”

dailytimes