The Evacuee Trust Property Board has sealed ten commercial shops in Delhi Gate, in the old walled city of Lahore, after their occupiers failed to pay rent for a long time and ran up large unpaid bills. The action, taken with police support, is the latest step in the board’s continuing drive to take back valuable trust properties from illegal occupiers and tenants who do not pay what they owe.
The shops stand in Ittifaq Centre and Flat Centre, two commercial buildings close to the historic Wazir Khan Mosque, a landmark of the walled city. A team led by Deputy Administrator Lahore-I Syeda Sameera Rizvi sealed the premises after finding that the rents had gone unpaid for an extended period and that substantial dues had built up against the occupiers. The board says the properties are worth millions of rupees, which is why their recovery matters to it. Once sealed, the shops cannot be traded from until the board decides their future.
The operation was carried out on the special instructions of the board’s chairman, Qamar Zaman, who has made the recovery of trust properties a central part of his time in charge. His orders were to protect valuable properties held in trust, end illegal occupation, and recover the money owed by defaulters. The sealing in Delhi Gate fits that pattern exactly: a prime commercial location, tenants who had stopped paying, and dues that had been allowed to pile up for months.
Police Backing for the Sealing Drive
The board did not act alone. The operation was carried out with the support of the DIG Operations and the SP Security, who provided the police assistance the team needed to seal the shops without trouble. Their presence matters, because sealing a busy commercial property in a crowded part of the old city can easily turn into a confrontation.
Speaking after the operation, Syeda Sameera Rizvi said the instructions issued by the chairman and the secretary would be carried out in letter and spirit. She made it plain that the drive would go on, and that action against illegal occupiers, rent defaulters and anyone who failed to clear outstanding dues would continue under a policy of zero tolerance, without any discrimination. The message was aimed as much at other defaulters as at the ten shops sealed on the day: pay what is owed, or face the same treatment.
The Delhi Gate sealing is only the latest in a series of similar operations across Punjab over the past few weeks. In October, the board recovered 99 commercial shops and other properties in Lahore, Kasur and Nankana in a single grand operation. Eighteen shops were recovered in Misri Shah and three more on Aibak Road, while thirteen shops valued at about Rs130 million were reclaimed on Manga Bypass. In Kasur, the board regained 47 shops worth roughly Rs100 million, and in the Nankana zone it took back eighteen shops and four other properties. Security staff were posted at the recovered properties to stop them being taken over again.
Earlier this month, the board took possession of a commercial property worth around Rs500 million on Nicholson Road in Lahore. Its tenants had defaulted on payments, and it also housed lawyers’ chambers and residential portions. The operation was carried out with the help of the Federal Investigation Agency and the local police, and board officials described it as part of the same effort to retrieve valuable properties and recover outstanding rents and other government dues.
The campaign has its roots in directions from the Supreme Court, which ordered action after a forensic audit found large numbers of trust properties under illegal occupation or in the hands of rent defaulters. A countrywide operation was launched in phases with the FIA, the police and the revenue department. The board has also introduced an online system so that tenants can pay their dues, a facility in place since the start of 2023, which removes any excuse for falling behind.
The reason the board presses these cases so hard is simple. The rents from its properties are its income, and when tenants stop paying, the board has less to spend on looking after the properties in its care. A shop in a place like Delhi Gate earns good rent, and every month it sits in the hands of a defaulter is money lost to the trust. Sealing the property stops the loss, and it also sends a signal to every other occupier who has fallen behind.
What happens next will follow the pattern the board has used before. The chairman has said that grand operations will be carried out in phases across the country to retrieve trust properties and restore them to their proper status, and that action against encroachers will continue without discrimination. For the ten shops in Delhi Gate, the question now is whether their occupiers come forward to clear their dues. Either way, the board’s message from this operation is clear enough: the days of occupying trust property without paying for it are coming to an end.
