Lahore: LHC to hear petition against illegal mobile towers today

[Naveed Yaseen]

LAHORE: Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed of the Lahore High Court (LHC) will hear a petition challenging the installation of mobile wireless towers in residential areas on Friday (today).

The petition has been filed by five residents of the Government Employees Cooperative Housing Society through their counsel Azhar Siddique. The counsel stated that under the law, a tower could not be installed in residential areas on commercial basis. He said earlier the residents of the society had protested the issue before the Environment Protection Agency (EPA) and the district coordination officer (DCO) that the tower would have adverse environmental impacts. The counsel said the EPA on January 28 passed a restraining order under the Environmental Protection Order (EPO) to the respondent company but it continued installing its illegal and unauthorized BTS Tower.

He said even the town municipal administration of Gulberg could not permit such a tower without prior approval from EPA under Section 12 of PEPA 1997 and a no-objection certificate (NOC) had been issued by the municipal administration in violation of the law.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp...009_pg7_20