Lahore High Court (LHC) Justice Shahid Karim Sunday stressed the need for a halt to the acquisition of agricultural land to build housing societies, reported 

He was addressing a session on ‘Climate Change and Floods in Pakistan’ on the last day of the two-day Asma Jahangir Conference at a hotel in Lahore.

He said that he had ordered to stop the acquisition of agricultural land in the Ravi Urban Development Authority (RUDA) case.

He informed the session that he had also revoked the old colonial law of acquiring agricultural land in the name of building infrastructure.

“For God’s sake! stop acquiring agricultural land. Building housing societies on agricultural land should be stopped now,” he stressed.

“In the RUDA judgment, we had declared that the national security is now the food security. The new name of national security is now food security,” he pointed out.

Justice Shahid also said that he had heard a petition on the improvement of environmental pollution in 2018. “The petition on the environmental pollution has been pending in the court,” he added.

The LHC judge also pointed out that the concept of secure life was in the Constitution, and he added that many judgements of the court were nothing but good paintings.

“We need to do more. Our constitution is a social link between the people and the state. Article 9 of the Constitution guarantees life,” he emphasised.

The judge also claimed that it had been decided to do something practically then. “A notice was taken on the wastage of water in mosques, and this water is now conserved,” he said.

“The water of Data Darbar Masjid is also conserved, and it irrigates Minto Park. Wasted water from cars’ washing is also being utilised,” he added.

“Various housing societies were ordered to pay money to the Water and Sanitation Agency (WASA). During the monsoon season, water used to accumulate on Mall Road and Lawrence Road in Lahore,” he informed the session.

“Now, an underground water tank has been built to conserve this water. According to the WASA, the groundwater level has not gone down since 2020,” he added.

Justice Shahid Karim also threw light on the steps taken for shifting the brick-kilns on better technology.

“The brick-kilns have been shifted to zigzag technology in two and a half years. This year, October sees sunshine which was not visible last year,” he said.

“A heavy fine of 200,000 has been set for burning crop residue. The court also banned plastic bags,” he added.

“Rising temperature is the biggest problem. Now we will move to controlling temperature. Installing solar panels and planting saplings will reduce temperature,” he pointed out.