Thursday last, the Chief Justice of Supreme Court Anwar Zaheer Jamali’s epoch-making comment in which he said that the "public is being fooled under the garb of democracy," while hearing the case on the Orange Line Metro Train, must have shocked the daylights out of the Punjab government that had moved the court hoping for a favourable response. The CJP also urged the people to elect their representatives wisely.

Earlier, in August this year, the Lahore High Court had ordered stay on the construction work within 200-metre radius of the 11 heritage sites earmarked. The court was responding to a petition after the LDA encroached on Chauburji premises and the GPO verandah was being pulled down.

Today, even as the project awaits the SC’s final verdict, work on the 27-km long OLMT is going on at full pelt. The unfortunate, poor people whose homes fall in the way of its route continue to be evicted, their land acquired by the government for measly compensations. The government doesn’t seem to bother about the people’s willingness or how they would relocate.

The OLMT project, which was announced over a year and half back, has since courted controversy -- for one reason or the other. Even though the prospect of a gorgeous-looking train running on an elevated track through some of the city’s best tourist sites may seem attractive to an outsider, the Lahoris haven’t taken kindly to it. And, their concerns have repeatedly been voiced by the urban planners, architects, environmentalists and social activists. They have been seconded by international organisations such as UNESCO, much to the Punjab government’s chagrin.