A fresh constitutional petition has brought the issue of the demolished Data Darbar pet and bird market back before the Lahore High Court, months after an earlier petition on the same incident was disposed of.
The initial petition, filed by Advocate Altmash Saeed, accused the Lahore Development Authority (LDA) of tearing down the market without proper planning or coordination, which allegedly led to the deaths of multiple animals trapped in the rubble.
At that time, the court had issued notices to the concerned departments and instructed them to submit a report within a month.
The matter has now been raised again by animal rights activist Aafiya Khan, represented by Barrister Izzat Fatima. Khan argues that the blame cannot rest solely on the Punjab Wildlife Department, noting that only about 6–7% of the animals present in the market fell under its jurisdiction.
Most of the animals, she contended, came under the responsibility of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) or the Punjab Police Animal Rescue Centre (PARC).
Barrister Fatima urged the court to order an independent inquiry led by a neutral commission rather than singling out one department. She said the demolition exposed deeper, systemic failures in how urban institutions handle animal protection and called for a proper policy framework to prevent similar lapses.
She proposed that whenever a demolition site contains animals, the LDA, SPCA, PARC, and Wildlife Department should jointly prepare a pre-demolition plan to ensure safe removal and relocation.
Fatima also recommended forming a multi-stakeholder oversight body with representatives from the Wildlife Department, SPCA, PARC, veterinary experts, and legal professionals to supervise inquiries and ensure accountability. Urban agencies, she said, should be tasked with identifying, documenting, and relocating animals before any demolition begins.
Her recommendations also included designating SPCA and PARC as the lead emergency responders in such situations, while limiting the Wildlife Department’s role to safeguarding endangered or rare species to avoid overlapping mandates.
Petitioner Aafiya Khan argued that although the first petition was submitted with good intentions, it resulted only in routine notices and no substantive progress. She stressed that real reform requires coordination between departments, not superficial compliance.
Khan added that chronic fragmentation and competition for credit have long weakened animal welfare efforts in Pakistan. She pointed out similar issues in the Tolinton Market redevelopment and in litigation over dog population control, where premature legal action caused avoidable delays.
Meanwhile, a senior official from the Punjab Wildlife Department stated that the department had already handed in its report. According to the report, there was no concrete evidence that animals or birds died under the market’s debris. It claimed that viral videos showing dead or injured animals were likely filmed elsewhere and brought to the site “to generate sympathy and media attention.”