CDA man caught smuggling timber from US Embassy

Islamabad
A ‘daring’ attempt by an official to illegally shift a truck loaded with timber worth millions of rupees from the premises of United States Embassy in Islamabad to some other location has been unearthed by Capital Development Authority (CDA) that is currently engaged in probing the incident that may push it into troubled waters, the sources told The News here on Friday.
The sources said Capital Development Authority received a letter from the United States Embassy (Islamabad) in the recent past in which it requested for removal of trees from its premises due to ongoing expansion work.
“An officer of Environment Wing of CDA visited the site of the United States Embassy last week and started cutting trees despite the fact that no non-objectionable certificate was issued in this respect,” the sources said.
According to rules, the Environment Wing of Capital Development Authority issues NOC for removal of trees anywhere in the capital city and on one even its own official can cut any tree without its issuance.
The sources claimed that the forest officer wanted to illegally smuggle the tree wood in connivance with a private contractor that was why he neither asked for NOC nor informed any competent authority in this regard.
“The Capital Development Authority officer succeeded in cutting trees from the United States Embassy and shifted them outside the Diplomatic Enclave but the local police intercepted and asked for NOC. When the official failed to produce NOC, the police confiscated the truck loaded with timber,” the sources said.
An official of CDA confided to this correspondent that when they came to know about the incident, they immediately rushed to the police station and after some negotiations they brought the truck to the Capital Development Authority Headquarters.
He said CDA has sent a letter to the United States Embassy and sought details about this incident that sent shivers down spine of the high-ups of the civic authority that has already launched inquiry into it.
When contacted, Capital Development Authority spokesman Ramzan Sajid told The News that the civic authority is currently in touch with the United States Embassy to obtain all the details of the incident that is first of its kind in last many years.
“We make it clear that those who are responsible for illegally shifting the tree-wood from the United States Embassy would not be spared and strict action would be taken against them,” he said.
He said at the moment they cannot clearly say what happened but it is a matter of days to ascertain the truth, adding “When we will obtain all the details about this incident then we will be able to clearly give comments about it.”