SC stops chopping of pine trees for construction of plazas

Petitioner argues two plazas being illegally constructed on residential plots

ISLAMABAD: The apex court has restrained Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf district chairman and the cantonment board from cutting pine trees in Abbottabad Cantonment, thus highlighting construction of two allegedly illegal commercial plazas in a forested residential area.

A three-member bench, headed by Justice Mian Saqib Nisar, took up an appeal of a citizen, Mahmood Ahmad Aslam , against the Peshawar High Court’s (PHC) April 30 order wherein a writ petition was dismissed on the basis of non-maintainability.



The bench, while accepting the plea for regular hearing, has issued notices to all respondents including PTI Abbottabad district chairman Ali Asghar Khan, military lands and estate secretary, K-P chief secretary, CEO of the cantt board, K-P Environment Protection Agency DG, Hazara Division commissioner and Environmental Protection Tribunal (EPT).

The petitioner argued that the Abbottabad Cantonment Board and Khan started construction of the plazas simultaneously last year on Pine View Road in Abbottabad, a densely forested residential area. He claimed the construction would damage the environment. He further said Khan was using his residential plot to build the plaza whereas the cantonment board was constructing it in a tree-filled ravine.

He pointed out that under the law, construction of plazas in residential areas of the cantonment was banned.



The petitioner stated that under Section 21(b) of the Pakistan Environmental Protection Act (PEPA) 1997, he wrote to the head of the EPA Dr Bashir Khan asking him to direct the builders to conduct an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), mandatory as per Section 12 of PEPA 1997.

The petitioner said that in April 2014 residents approached PHC’s Abbottabad bench which asked them to approach the Environmental Protection Tribunal in Peshawar. The citizens subsequently filed their petition with the Environmental Tribunal of Peshawar.

He claimed that on Nov 19, 2014, the revenue officer wrote in his assessment report to the commissioner that a 100 feet water course was passing along Pine View Road and the construction would cause floods in low-lying areas.



Aslam stated that as the case continued to linger before the tribunal, he approached the PHC informing it about the delay following which the court directed the tribunal to decide the case before Feb 22, 2015. However, the environmental tribunal on February 4, 2015, wrote in its order that it could not hear the case any longer due to the enactment of the new K-P Environmental Protection Act. Later, PHC also dismissed his plea on similar grounds.

The hearing was adjourned till December 10.

Murree case

The Supreme Court in another case expressed annoyance over the Punjab government’s failure to submit its reply on the violation of a six-year-old judgment regarding the protection of the environment in Murree tehsil.



The three-member bench — headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Anwar Zaheer Jamali — on Thursday resumed the plea of Murree residents seeking directions to the Punjab government on account of violations of a July 31, 2007 judgment, wherein the court had ordered an end to the Rs60 billion New Murree City Project, which was termed a manmade disaster for Murree’s forest range.

The bench also asked Deputy Attorney General Sohail Mahmood to file a reply within a week.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 20^th, 2015.