F-9 Park: Ombudsman cancels NOC for grid station

EPA had allowed Iesco for installation of a 132KV grid station in public park

ISLAMABAD: Federal Ombudsman Salman Farooqi on Wednesday canceled a no-objection certificate (NOC) allowing construction of a grid station in F-9 Park.

Earlier, the ombudsman summoned climate change ministry and environment protection agency (EPA) officials for allowing IESCO for installation of a 132KV grid station in Fatima Jinnah Park in violation of set rules.

The ombudsman had issued notices to the top officials on a complaint filed by a citizen, Arif Karim, who said that the environmental watchdog has given permission to the IESCO to construct the grid station in capital’s largest park without the approval of a permanent head of the agency, as required under the Pakistan Environmental Protection Act, 1997.

Former Pak-EPA Director General Dr Muhammad Khurshid had, in January 2015, barred the power utility to install the grid station in the park saying that the Capital Development Authority (CDA) could not allot a park land without denotifying the land from the park area.

The SC had also ordered that a public park could not be used for other purposes.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 4^th,  2016.