Hold on

Master Plan 2050, would give land mafia unwarranted advantages: petitioner

LAHORE: The Lahore Master Plan 2050 has been put on hold after the Lahore High Court’s green bench, led by Justice Shahid Karim, suspended it on January 10, due to environmental and economic concerns. The honourable justice pointed out his concern about the haphazard and thoughtless initiatives, in the Master Plan, which would make it difficult for citizens to breathe clean air, while also harming the economy.

The previous administration approved the Lahore Master Plan 2050 on December 19, last year, at a Lahore Development Authority (LDA) governing body meeting presided over by the then-chief minister Chaudhry Pervez Elahi. On paper, the master plan emphasised future agricultural land security, and enforced sustainable development to maintain the urban-rural balance, the ground reality or perception was quite different. The proposal also increased the proportion of green spaces from 7 per cent to 20 per cent.

The plan’s highlights were the various planning layers: division, district, and town. The former chief minister had directed that transportation, commercial, and industrial planning be done in conformity with population proportions. The Lahore Master Plan also included two of the former Prime Minister, Imran Khan’s government’s signature initiatives: the Ravi Urban Development Authority and the Central Business District Project.

“It was an inclusive proposal,” said former minister Aslam Iqbal, who was present at the meeting. “The project, if executed, would bring about a sea of change in tourism, environment, and urban facilities in the Lahore division.” LDA’s service structure, finances, revenue, and recovery wings were to benefit from the strategy. The Petitioner’s Counsel, Shahzad Shaukat, contended in Justice Shahid Karim’s court, that the LDA’s approval of the Master Plan 2050, was a managed affair and intended to provide the land mafia and real estate developers unwarranted advantages. He claimed that the LDA overlooked the terrible effects it would have on the already failing ecology of Lahore.

He added that the Lahore division’s residents had been left at the mercy of land developers by the Master Plan, which was supposed to determine how the division would look in the years to come. He emphasised that despite Lahore’s declining air quality index, the plan called for a reduction in green space. Recently, the LDA has implemented corrective actions. The Lahore Master Plan 2050, has designated 33,000 acres of undeveloped brown areas (land allotted or notified for housing projects) as green spaces, according to LDA Director General Aamir Ahmed Khan.

Why did the LDA adopt the plan when the court had already halted any relevant activities?

The Director General explained, “Well, the operation has been paused, not the plan.” The notification date for the plan was December 31, 2021, but it was left unfinished. The LHC’s supervisory bench pressed us to finish the assignment by December 31, 2022. On December 21, the LDA completed the assignment. Lahore’s development plans have a complicated history. The first of its sort was announced in 2004, with subsequent plans in 2016 and 2019. The Lahore High Court directed the start of the 2019 master plan. The LDA DG described the key goals of the Lahore Master Plan.

“The plan’s notification deadline was December 31, 2021. However, it was not completed, even though the LHC’s supervisory bench was pressuring us to do so. The deadline was later extended to December 31, 2022,” the DG stated.

The Master Plan includes not just district headquarters like Lahore, Kasur, Sheikhupura, and Nankana, but also all towns in the division, where 49 projects would be carried out. The newly added 33,000 acres are in the northwestern part of Lahore, where the LDA has designated 27,000 acres as agricultural zones, after removing them from undeveloped brown regions. Similarly, another 6,000 acres of brown land along the Bambawali-Ravi-Bedian Canal have been converted to green space. “The region (about 20,000 acres) that has been turned brown was designated as such in the Master Plan of 2004. However, it was declared green again in 2016. Meanwhile, several acres of land have been developed as land owners petitioned the court in 2004 about the classification of brown regions as green ones,” added the DG.

The master plan is quite likely to be revisited in court after court.