Ombudsman calls for coordination to control incidents

Islamabad : Syed Tahir Shahbaz, the Federal Ombudsman has expressed serious concern on lack of coordination among the Municipal Corporation of Islamabad (MCI), Islamabad Wildlife Management Board (IWMB) and Ministry of Interior and other agencies to control fire incidents on Margalla Hills National Park.

He stressed to make coordinated efforts among these agencies in the light of Federal Ombudsman recommendations already endorsed by the Supreme Court of Pakistan. He also emphasised to improve reporting mechanism of fire incidents at Margalla Hills.

Previously, in pursuance of the orders of the Supreme Court of Pakistan dated June 25, 2018, the Ombudsman after a series of meetings with CDA, NDMA, Municipal Corporation Islamabad (MCI), Islamabad Wildlife Management Board (IWMB) and Ministry of Interior had made recommendations and suggested measures to prevent incidents of fire at Margalla Hills.

It was recommended that MCI, CDA, IWMB and NDMA should work together to develop SOPs to ensure coordination in order to avoid such incidents. It was also directed that Ministry of Interior would hold a monthly meeting of all the agencies and submit its report to the Ombudsman secretariat. It was directed to submit annual fire control plan to the Ombudsman Secretariat. It was also recommended that MCI would equip its pickets on modern lines to control the incidents of fire along with presence of sufficient staff and submit it report.

The meeting was chaired by Federal Ombudsman Syed Tahir Shahbaz, and the representatives of MCI, NDMA, CDA, IWMB and Ministry of Interior attended the meeting.