Citizens stand up against Margalla Avenue

Islamabad : The participants of Devcom-Pakistan webinar urged CDA to immediately stop construction of Margalla Avenue, not to violate rule of law, and suggested immediate stakeholder consultation to avoid any direct confrontation.

Speaking at a webinar on Saturday, the civil society leadership and environmentalists strongly condemned the Capital Development Authority (CDA) for continuing construction work on the Margalla Avenue without any approval of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). They urged prime minister to take immediate notice of the CDA’s rude action of illegally entering 3 km deep into the Margalla Hills National Park for the construction of Margalla Avenue paying no heed to the Environmental Protection Order (EPO), issued by the Pakistan Environmental Protection Agency (Pak-EPA) for violating the Margalla Hills National Park (MHNP) boundary. The webinar was organised by the Development Communications Network (Devcom-Pakistan) on the subject “Margalla Avenue: CDA’s illegal encroachment into Margalla Hills National Park (MHNP)” on Saturday. Introducing the subject, Devcom-Pakistan Executive Director Munir Ahmed said the Margalla Avenue was launched in 2012 by Syed Yousaf Raza Gillani, then prime minister of Pakistan. The well-hyped Avenue became controversial since the day it was launched because of its environmental consequences.

The Islamabad High Court (IHC) has already reserved its verdict two months back on the citizens’ petition. Six more public interest petitions have been clubbed with the first one. CDA has continued its construction work at the Avenue till today despite the case in the court of law, and the Pak-EPA has also issued an EPO. This is strange. CDA is paying no heed to the concerns of the stakeholders, and continuing violation of the rule of law. Special Assistant to Prime Minister Malik Amin Aslam assured to take up the matter with higher authorities. Islamabad Wildlife Management Board (IWMB) chairperson Rina Saeed Khan said that she was only concerned with the illegal encroachment of CDA into the Margalla Hills National Park.

“We were repeatedly given assurances that the Margalla Avenue will not pass through the MHNP that is one of the 15 protected areas the Prime Minister Imran Khan had very proudly declared. This is contempt and violation of the Prime Minister’s vision. We shall denotify MHNP if other government organisations cannot care about the sanctity of a National Park.” She said CDA should have halted the construction work until the verdict was announced. This is unethical that CDA kicked off construction without the approval of EIA, and paying no heed to the Environmental Protection Order of the Pak-EPA. We should abolish all these legal forums if the government authorities have to bypass them.