* Gulberg Town administration and Forestry Department officials started campaign against high-rise buildings in November
* Town official says government to take stern action

By Afnan Khan

LAHORE: The Gulberg Town administration and the Forest, Fisheries and Livestock secretary have sent a report to Chief Secretary (CS) Javed Mehmood about illegally constructed high-rise buildings in the town, officials concerned told Daily Times on Thursday.

Most of these buildings are situated in the Liberty Market. The report is part of the Punjab government’s drive to cleanse the city of encroachments and illegally constructed buildings. CS Javed Mehmood has assigned secretaries of several departments to help the Town Municipal Administrations (TMAs) in this regard.

Campaign: The town administration, in collaboration with the Forestry Department officials, started the campaign in November and surveyed the Liberty Market and other localities. The officials came to know that the market could not provide parking to the shoppers.

A Gulberg Town official said that after a thorough study of the area the town administration had realised that the high-rise buildings were mainly causing problems for the visitors.

“According to the allowed limit no building could go more than 3 floors, but a number of buildings, including shopping malls, hotels and residential structures are in violation of the rules. Owing to lack of parking space shoppers park their vehicles in the streets, creating problems for others,” he added.

Stern action: He said the town administration and Fisheries Secretary Major ® Azam Saleem had sent the report to the CS. He said the government was likely to take stern action against the buildings situated on Gulberg Main Boulevard, Model Town Link Road, Allama Iqbal Road, and in the Liberty Market, Barkat Market and Main Market.

He also said Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif had shown “zero tolerance” towards such buildings and illegally constructed floors of a number of buildings in the city had been demolished.

Gulberg Acting Town Municipal Officer Abdul Razaq said the report had been sent to the CS and he would take the final decision after hearing other stakeholders, including the Lahore Development Authority (LDA).

He said further he could not say for sure anything about the higher authorities’ course of action, adding that the violation of a building’s height was also considered a kind of encroachment and the city district government and the Punjab government had adopted a stern policy against such buildings. “We have submitted the report to the quarters concerned and they should ask the LDA about how these buildings were constructed under their nose,” he said.

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