SC tells CDA to act against cutting of trees near Margalla Hills

By Sohail Khan
November 04, 2017

Islamabad: The Supreme Court (SC) on Thursday took strong exception of its stay order violations by the civic authorities while allowing construction work and cutting of trees in the vicinity of Margalla Hills and observed that the relevant laws if not being implemented in the federal capital, be abolished.

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The court made an observation that if house of a judge or a general comes in the prohibited area of the federal capital, there should be an impartial action in this regard. A two-member bench of the apex court comprising Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed and Justice Qazi Faiz Isa heard a suo moto case regarding stone crushing and mining at Margallah Hills and cutting of trees in the prohibited areas of the federal capital.

The court warned of initiating contempt proceedings against the people for not complying with its order but ruled that first the responsible persons should be proceeded with departmental action and taking stern action against them.

The court directed Capital Development Authority (CDA) and Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) to take immediate action against the responsible persons and sought comprehensive report over cutting of trees for the extension of Embassy Road.

The court also directed Director General Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to probe and ascertaining who had played their acting role in cutting of trees on the Embassy road. The court also completely banned the sale and purchase of land in prohibited areas of the federal capital and warned that the officers of the Revenue Department will be responsible for the violation of court orders.

During the course of proceedings, Justice Qazi Faiz Isa observed that the federal capital looks like a war zone as lots of containers have been erected. The federal capital has been turned into a city for the VIPs and there was no passage for the pedestrians”, Justice Isa remarked.

Former Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry on October 25, 2013 while hearing a suo moto case pertaining to Margalla Tunnelhad restrained the Capital Development Authority and National Highway Authority not to undertake any exercise towards the construction of Tunnel in the Margalla Hills enroute to the Province of Khyber Pukhtunkhwa and the CDA was also directed not to grant license of crushing stones from the Margalla Hills.

Later on, the court had stayed any sort of construction in the jurisdiction of Margalla Hills. The petitioner Roidad Khan on Thursday told the court that despite of court orders, construction work has been in progress in the vicinity of Margalla National Park. The court was informed that Director General WWF while giving presentation had stated that despite of stay order issued by the apex court in 2016, influential people have constructed their houses and hotels in the jurisdiction of Margalla National Park.

In this respect, the court was informed that DG Environment of Capital Development Authority and DG State Management were responsible for the illegal construction in the prohibited area.

On this occasion, Munir Paracha, Counsel for the Capital Development Authority (CDA) sought some time for taking action against the responsible persons but the court rejected his plea and ordered immediate action against the responsible persons besides directing the Islamabad Capital Territory to cooperate with the civic body to accomplish the task.

The counsel for civic body when said that the authority was carrying out crackdown against the encroachments in Zone 3 and 4, Justice Qazi Faiz Isa said that if a house of a judge and general comes in the jurisdiction of prohibited zone, there must be an impartial action in this regard.

Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed observed that the court knows its powers saying if the police and executive cannot implement the court’s orders then they will ask some others to do the needful.

“I myself saw thousands of the trees cut on the Embassy road, whether the civic body draws salary for destroying the environment in the federal capital”, Justice Qazi Faiz Isa remarked.

Counsel for CDA however, submitted before the court that Embassy road is being widened for the route of VIPs. At this Justice Sheikh Azmat Seed said that the officials of civic body should be awarded Nishan-e-Pakistan on March 23.

Meanwhile, the court directed stern action against Director General Environment and Director General State Management, Capital Development Authority (CDA) and sought complete report from Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) over the matter in 24 hours and adjourned further proceedings until last week of November.

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