Islamabad the beautiful?: Rapid construction threatens city’s greenery

Residents move court against CDA for ‘diminishing the beauty of the city’.


Obaid Abbasi April 21, 2011

ISLAMABAD:


Concerned citizens of the capital moved the court against what they termed as unplanned construction and rapid commercialisation of the city which threatened its aesthetic value.


The residents of different areas of Islamabad moved the court against CDA for “converting public parks, green belts and open spaces into residential plots”.

The population of Islamabad has increased rapidly with the passage of time. In a bid to cope with the burden of more people, the city managers were forced to build new sectors, some of them on green belts and park areas of the city. The green belts are not only important for the aesthetics of the city, they also serve as places of respite for the common man.

Residents fear that many projects initiated by the civic agency of the capital put the greenery of the city at stake.

Twelve petitioners who are residents of different areas of the city including sector G-9, G-13, G-6/1-3, F-10 and Shahzad Town filed a writ petition before the court stating that in the past few years, CDA had been violating city by-laws by converting open spaces, green belts and parks into residential plots.

During the hearing of the case, Justice Riaz Ahmed Khan directed Chairman CDA Imtiaz Inayat Elahi and Director General Pakistan Environment Protection Agency (Pak-EPA) Asadullah Faiz to submit their reply within two weeks.

The court observed that green areas cannot be converted into residential or commercial plots.

The petitioners contended that CDA had allotted 4,500 plots to its employees and violated article-9 of the constitution that holds a healthy environment as a fundamental right.

The petitioners held that by converting public amenities and green belts into residential plots, the environment of the city had been negatively affected. They said Islamabad was developed to be a model city with all facilities including green belts and parks, but the city mangers were “busy in destroying the beauty of the city by using green areas for commercial purposes”.

They quoted a decision of a former prime minister in 1986 which rejected the proposal for creating plots in open spaces and stated that green areas would be preserved.

Cabinet committee through its decision on June 22, 1992, directed CDA to stop this practice but still it has continued till today, they maintained.

Director General Planning CDA Sarwar Sindhu refuted the impression and said no designated green belts were converted into residential plots in the last ten years.

“As a planner, I never allowed the conversion of open spaces or green belts into commercial areas. CDA also focused on establishing parks and green belts in the last five years,’’ he claimed.

He conceded that in 1986 a draft was proposed in this regard but no specific law was introduced. He said in G-13, an area was being converted for commercial purpose but CDA restricted the encroachers from doing so.

Director General (Pak-EPA) was unaware of the issue, but said such possibility near Nullahs could not be ruled out. “I will look into the matter when I receive the court notice,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 21st, 2011.

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