High-rise victims seek bailout

[Lahore_Real_Estate]

Thursday, January 21, 2010
By By Ali Raza
LAHORE

HUNDREDS of people, who are owners of shops and businesses in multi-storey buildings, constructed in violation of building bylaws, have raised various apprehensions about the Punjab government’s ongoing demolition campaign and demanded the government announce a clear policy about their future.

Presently, the Lahore Development Authority (LDA) is demolishing three high-rise buildings completely and extra floors of nine other plazas while the City District Government Lahore (CDGL) is also demolishing eight high-rise buildings. Both the LDA and the CDGL have also announced demolition of more high-rise buildings and notices have already been served to many plaza owners to vacate their buildings before the start of the demolition.

Till date, both the government organisations had only invited owners of plazas, traders and shopkeepers of those plazas where demolition was taking place. They included those whose shops and businesses were situated on the demolished floors while owners or occupants of the rest of the building where demolition was taking place were not invited. The occupants of other floors of a plaza being demolished were not invited to submit any kind of claim despite the fact that their businesses were also suffering due to the demolition.

A large number of shopkeepers said they were suffering heavy financial losses due to the ongoing demolition drive during which roads leading to the targeted high-rise buildings were closed for traffic while there other floors could not operate normally.

Muhammad Ilyas, a shopkeeper at Rabi Centre, said he owned a shop on the second floor of the plaza where the LDA was demolishing the sixth, seventh and eighth floors. He said the demolition had drastically reduced commercial activity in the plaza and his business was also affected badly.

“I want to sell my shop and at the moment no one is ready to buy it,” he added.

“Traders and business community are suffering due to the corrupt practices of the LDA and the CDGL officials who allowed construction of illegal floors in high-rise buildings,” said Jamshed Khan, another trader at the Rabi Centre. He said the government had initiated demolition of illegal buildings instead of purging the LDA and the CDGL of corrupt officials.

Muhammad Iqbal, owner of a shop at Khan Plaza, Firdaus Market, said he was running from pillar to post to get information about the process of the loss evaluation. He said the plaza was among those, which were yet to be demolished and the occupants had been directed to vacate the building. He said his shop was on the second floor and since the LDA had served notice of vacation, his business had been going down. He said fifth and sixth floors of the plaza were illegal and would likely to be demolished. He said he wanted to know the status of the plaza as when the demolition would start but no one was ready to give him the information.

Traders and business community have demanded the government immediately arrest the corrupt LDA officials, especially senior officials, who allowed the construction of illegal buildings and floors. They ask the Punjab government, the LDA and CDGL officials to make it clear as how the government will help them recover loss from the builders because legally the LDA would not force any builder to pay back to the victims. The spokesman for the LDA said the government was closely monitoring the demolition process and Chief Minister

Mian Shahbaz Sharif had constituted a five-member committee, formed to assess the damages caused to people’s properties during the demolition campaign, had started functioning. He said the committee was headed by Punjab Literacy and Non-Formal Basic Education Secretary Haseeb Athar. He said so far dozens of widows, orphans and middle-class people had submitted sale deeds of their properties to the committee along with other ownership documents.

A senior official of the CDGL said another committee was constituted to look into the ongoing irregular construction of multi-storey structures and new illegal plazas in the provincial capital. He said the committee had started finalising its recommendations besides evolving a strategy to initiate action against such structures. He said 24 officials, including the chief metropolitan planner, director town planning and former chief town planner, had been suspended for their alleged involvement in illegal construction of high-rises. He said departmental action had also been initiated against suspended officials under the Punjab Employees Efficiency and Discipline Act 2006. The suspended officials were: Aftab Ahmed Khan, Chief Metropolitan Planner, Chaudhry Muhammad Akram, Director Town Planning, Qazi Masood Ahmed, former Chief Town Planner, Khalid Mehmood Sheikh, Metropolitan Planning Director and two deputy directors Shakil Anjum Minhas and Muhammad Fahim.