There are 1,000 such green areas in Islamabad which have been turned into residential plots.
ISLAMABAD: This is in response to a story by Danish Hussain published on March 24 titled “Veiled beauty: The other side of encroachments”. It would have been better if the reporter had got the facts right before publishing the story.
The story states that my husband, Salim Saifullah, was allotted a plot in Islamabad. This is untrue. Also, the size of the plot is given to be 1,000 square yards. The truth is that this plot measures 1,360 square yards and was bought by my father, Brigadier (retd) Mahmud Jan, for me 26 years ago in 1988. The said empty plot was part of a green area, running all the way down from Street 60 to my residence in Street 61. There was a huge, open nullah running right through the centre, bringing with it rainwater and sewerage. We had it properly covered, and cleared the whole area of rocks at our expense.
The then CDA management gave us permission to beautify it, as long as no building was constructed on it. Yes, there have been encroachments, as well as giving away of green belts to ‘favourites’ since the times of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and General Ziaul Haq. It seems that either some vested interests have suddenly decided to seize these green area plots or the Capital Development Authority is very cash-strapped. As my son Assad Saifullah Khan stated in the story, green areas are being turned into residential plots. There are over 1,000 such green areas in Islamabad and there are still some people, who would like to keep the city green, rather than build a jungle of concrete.
Haseena Saifullah Khan
Published in The Express Tribune, March 26th, 2014.
Like Opinion & Editorial on Facebook, follow @ETOpEd on Twitter to receive all updates on all our daily pieces.
