Federal Ombudsman Salman Farooqi. PHOTO: FILE
Federal Ombudsman has summoned climate change ministry and environment protection agency officials for allowing construction of a grid station in the capital’s largest public park.
The ombudsman issued notices to the climate change ministry and Pakistan Environmental Protection Agency (Pak-EPA) top officials on a complaint filed by a citizen, Arif Karim, saying that the environmental watchdog gave permission to IESCO for installation of a 132KV grid station in Fatima Jinnah Park without the approval of a permanent head of the agency, as required by 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 Supreme Court had also ordered that a public park could not be used for other purposes.
However, after Khurshid’s retirement, the civic agency colluded with some “corrupt” officials of EPA and obtained an NOC, a source in the ministry told The Express Tribune.
MoCC Director General Environment Irfan Tariq was given the additional charge of heading the EPA on January 26 this year but the NOC was issued on December 28 last year.
The complainant has questioned legality of Tariq’s signature on the NOC, signed before he was officially notified as EPA head.
Tariq, however, claimed that the piece of land where the grid station has been planned to be built was not part of the park and its construction was part of the initial master plan.
To a question on how an NOC could be issued in absence of a permanent EPA head, he said it had been decided that once a DG was appointed, he would formally approve the NOC.
He also claimed there was no need to de-notify the park land for construction of the grid station, in contrast to what his predecessor had ruled.
MoCC Secretary Arif Ahmed Khan, on his part, said that the ministry had sought EPA’s advice in the issue, to which, “EPA said there was no harm in carrying out the project at F-9 Park land.”
The civic authority claims that the entire land in F-9 Park is not allocated for the park area.
IESCO had started work on the grid station last year but the environmental watchdog, led by then director general, had told CDA and IESCO to stop building the grid station in the park.
The CDA had allocated 10 kanals of parkland to IESCO for the project. Once completed, an additional 25 megawatts (MW) of electricity will be added to the main transmission line, 16 MW of which will be diverted to Centaurus Mall, while the rest would be provided to Blue Area, and sectors F-8, F-9, G-8 and G-9. The CDA had already paid Rs270.725 million as construction costs to IESCO.
The ombudsman has summoned MoCC secretary and Pak-EPA representatives to appear before the court today (Tuesday).
Published in The Express Tribune, February 2nd, 2016.
COMMENTS
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ