LAHORE- A full bench of the Supreme Court of Pakistan headed by Justice Khalil-ur-Rehman Ramday here Monday called for Tuesday (today) the appearance of Punjab Chief Secretary, District Nazim, Lahore, and Director General Lahore Development Authority (LDA) in a case of illegally constructed high-rise buildings in the City. It is pertinent to mention that the bench also comprising Justice Fakir Muhammad Khokhar and Justice Syed Sakhi Hussain Bokhari has been hearing scores of petitions relating to hundreds of plaza, shopping malls, commercial sites etc. detected through a commission appointed by this court some three years back. Now the bench has required attendance of the said principal functionaries of government to respond to queries on the formulation of committee by the LDA on its own to deal with the cases of illegally developed buildings in the city particularly relating to those under proceedings of this Bench. The court took a very serious view of establishing this committee. At the outset of the proceedings, LDA senior legal adviser Aslam Butt presented to the court a copy of the proposal on the constitution of the committee over and above the commission which the court had set up at the head of former Justice LHC, Riaz Kiyani and comprising experts on the matter, to detect and spot illegalities and deviation from the rules and regulations in the construction of the commercial sites. The proposed committee also including a builder Dr Sajid and its draft contained such provisions, which encroached upon the authority of Environment Department in suppression of the environmental law, amounting to render the department superfluous and purposeless. Justice Ramday also took serious exception to as yet not made appointment of structural engineer by the LDA despite the fact a direction regarding this was passed as late as year 2006. Making a mention of the period of his deposition, Justice Ramday observed, he has come back to the office, but the LDA has as yet not complied with the directions. The court was told by the director Town Planning that a requisition for the appointment of structural engineer was moved to the Punjab Service Commission where the matter was pending, but the director failed to answer a question how many total commercial buildings stood in the City. As to the proposed committee, Justice Ramday prima facie found it a means to get rid of the commission of this court. The judge said instead of following the court order, the LDA has resorted to setting up the committee. Justice Ramday said the court would seriously deal with this issue. Expressing a sheer dissatisfaction with the proposal, the court deemed it fit to call for the appearance of the said officials next day (Tuesday). Taking up the matter of plaza at the junction of Baden Road and Cooper Road, whose construction was previously stayed by this court for the reason 892sqft area of the building allegedly encroached upon the public land, the Bench put the building under seals and directed the SHO Qilla Gujjar Singh to deploy a guard at the site. Advocate AK Dogar for owner of the plaza, Muhammad Saleem Yasin, pleaded that his client was developing the site with Bank loan and the stay in question was unduly burdening him with heavy interest. According to the counsel, the commission had wrongly found faults with the ownership of the site as aunt of his client, who passed away issueless on September 21 last, had gifted her three marla land, incorporated in the plaza, to the petitioner on July 5, last. The memorandum presented by the petitioner was unregistered on a Rs 100 stamp paper, to which the court found not a valid document under the law. The court found some other anomalies about this instrument and wanted the petitioner to get a decree of successor from the civil court about the land in question. The counsel argued that same has been verified by the Town Data Gunj Buksh through an NOC in favour of his client. The court, however, viewed that the town also not acting within law about this transaction given the fact, the petitioner did not get a registered document obtained through proper procedure of law in his name. Justice Ramday said the lady dies issueless and apparently no legal heirs is there to take over the property as such, it is the state property under Article 173 of the Constitution. The court was also fortified by a report of the district officer (Revenue) showing the plaza covering the central government land. The court required the petitioner to obtain a valid civil decree of succession in his name from the court of law before praying for the relief.