Chopped trees: CM orders inquiry, arrest of culprits

Karachi 

The city commissioner was on Thursday ordered, by Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah, to identify and arrest culprits after several trees along Sharea Faisal’s green belt were chopped off, on late Wednesday night, apparently to make space for more signboards.

Expressing displeasure over the incident, Shah questioned the absence of concerned officers all the while a group of unauthorised people were cutting down the trees.

"This is sheer negligence! The act could not have been carried out without the connivance of concerned officers,” the CM said. He asked commissioner Karachi, Asif Hyder Shah, to get a case registered against the culprits, have them arrested and report to him at the earliest.

"Here we are, trying to improve the environment and making serious efforts to plant trees while some unscrupulous elements were chopping them down," observed an angered CM, adding, that the issue needed to be taken seriously. 

Administrator Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) Laiq Ahmed had, however, already gotten an FIR registered against unidentified people; a two-member committee was also formed which were to inform the KMC if trees were found to have been chopped in any area, in every two days.

The administrator was informed by officials of the civic utility that the registration number of the truck used in the incident was caught on camera, fitted at Sharea Faisal and was being looked for.

KMC officers were also told to plant around 1,500 saplings all over the city, during a meeting at the administrator’s office.