Petitioner says unidentified people come at night and chop down trees.
PHOTO: EXPRESS
A three-judge bench of apex court, headed by Justice Mian Saqib Nisar, has issued notices to the federal government over the plea of former Deputy Attorney General Dil Muhammad Alizai who claimed trees in Islamabad, especially those in the Margalla Hills, were being chopped illegally.
The bench had taken up a suo motu case regarding continued quarrying in the Margalla Hills National Park area in May.
Alizai told The Express Tribune that he moved the application under the original jurisdiction of the Supreme Court on enforcement of fundamental rights after being disappointed by the attitude of government departments concerned.
In his application, Alizai named the Capital Development Authority (CDA) and the Forest Department of the Punjab as respondents.
The applicant, who lives in Chaman Zar Hill Colony near Bara Kahu, contended in his application that unidentified people come at night and chop down trees in the wooded area.
He said that though these people continue cutting trees for several hours at night, no one has ever bothered to check this activity.
In addition to the jungle area near his house, Alizai explained that he had often witnessed trees being chopped from the Convention Centre unto Bara Kahu travelled from the Supreme Court to his home.
He pleaded before the bench to order the concerned agencies to conduct an inquiry to ascertain how long this exercise of unabated felling trees in the capital was going on and to determine the extent of the jungle which had been denuded.
He also urged the court to ask the government to explain what measures had been taken to discourage this activity.
Stone crushing
Meanwhile during the hearing, Director General Environment of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government submitted a report of the province on stone crushing.
The court asked the advocate general whether the K-P chief secretary was ready to file an affidavit that there is no stone crushing going on in the province. The judge said several orders have been passed in this regard and now the court would examine whether any of these had been implemented.
Additional Advocate General K-P said that illegal stone crushing in the province has been banned.
Justice Saqib inquired whether the provincial government also examines security measures at the stone crushing plants. To which K-P environment official said that they were continuously examining security measures at such units, but pointed out that they had a shortage of staff.
The court asked the provincial government to ensure that every crushing or mining unit should have a no-objection certificate from concerned provincial department in future. The hearing was adjourned till October 19.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 7th, 2016.
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