ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Thursday fixed the Punjab government’s plea against the Lahore High Court’s (LHC) verdict in the Ravi Riverfront Urban Development Project (RRUDP) case for Monday (January 31). A division bench of the SC, led by Justice Ijaz ul Ahsan, took up the matter earlier on Thursday and ordered the top court’s Registrar’s Office to fix the appeal for the hearing next week. The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf-led Punjab government on Wednesday approached the top court seeking the suspension of the LHC’s January 25 order, which declared the project as illegal and ‘unconstitutional’. “We have not received a detailed decision of Lahore High Court,” Justice Ijaz said, mentioning that petitions can only be heard after a detailed decision of the LHC is received. Earlier on Tuesday, the Lahore High Court (LHC) declaring the Ravi Urban Development Project unconstitutional, directed the Ravi Urban Development Authority (RUDA) to return money it has acquired for the project to the Punjab government. Announcing the reserved verdict, Justice Shahid Karim said that RUDA failed to prepare a master plan in accordance with the law. TLTP
He added that any scheme without a master plan is contrary to the constitution.
The court also declared Section 4 of the Ravi Urban Development Authority (amendment) Ordinance 2021 unlawful and unconstitutional. The mentioned section is contradictory to Article 144 of the Constitution of Pakistan, it said.
“Agricultural land can be acquired only when there is a proper legal framework for it but the land for RRUDP was acquired through a violation of Land Acquisition Act, 1894,” the court remarked. “Lahore and Sheikhupura failed to abide by the law in the land acquisition,” the court said.
The petitions, filed by advocates Sheraz Zaka, Ahmad Rafay Alam and others on behalf of the farmers, challenged the mode and manner of the land acquisition proceedings undertaken by the RUDA for RRUDP.
