Court stops govt from agri land acquisition for Ravi project.

LAHORE -- The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Friday stayed acquisition of agricultural land for the Ravi Riverfront Urban Development Project and directed the registrar office to club all identical petitions and fix them before one bench.

Representing a public-interest petition, Advocate Sheraz Zaka argued before the court that the acquisition laws had been blatantly violated by the government and the farmers were being deprived of their precious land.

The counsel said compulsory acquisition would deprive the farmers of their agricultural land and it could pose food security threats in the future. He pointed out that a vast chunk of agricultural land being converted for the benefit of property developers was against the Convention of Biological Diversity that the government of Pakistan had also ratified.

Justice Ali Baqar Najafi observed that a similar situation had also been witnessed across the border in India where farmers were protesting against the government for subjecting them to commercial interests.

The lawyer said the government had not issued any notification to disclose any public purpose of the riverfront project which it...