Six-member committee to submit proposals to SC

IMC official tells court they do not have requisite equipment to combat infernos

ISLAMABAD: With the capital struggling with fires erupting over its hill-scape, the apex court has decided to constitute a committee to present recommendations on curbing forest fires on the Margalla Hills.

The directions were issued as a three-member bench of the Supreme Court, headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Mian Saqib Nisar, heard a suo motu case about the fires in the Margalla Hills on Monday.

The top court directed that a federal ombudsman will head the committee, while it will also include a former bureaucrat and Margalla Hill Society President Roedad Khan, the deputy attorney general, the advocate general of Islamabad the Capital Development Authority (CDA) chairman and the Islamabad Metropolitan Corporation (IMC) mayor.



The committee is open and can add any relevant expert should it choose to do so.

Further, the committee has been directed to submit its recommendations to the court within two weeks.

When court resumed hearing the case on Monday, IMC Chief Metropolitan Officer (CMO) Najaf Bukhari submitted a report to the court on the wildfires in the Margalla Hills.

After reading the report, CJP Nisar remarked that per the report no one must be at fault for the fires. Moreover, the fires must have naturally petered out after raging for three days.

At this singular chastisement, the CMO admitted that the local government was ill-prepared when the fires first broke out across the Margalla Hills this year.

The CMO went on to complain that their firefighters do not have the requisite firefighting equipment including suits to put out such intense fires.

Realising the CMO’s predicament, the chief justice offered that they can form a commission which can submit recommendations on preventing forest fires in the hills.

During Monday’s hearing, former civil servant and Margalla Hills Society President Roedad Khan told the court that the local population was responsible for 90 per cent of the fires which spark on the Hills.

On June 4, the apex court had taken notice of rising incidents of fires on the Margalla Hills which posed a serious threat to the forest, the wildlife therein and the environment.

Notices had been issued to the attorney general, the environment secretary, Capital Administration and Development Division (CADD) secretary, Islamabad mayor, chief commissioner and CDA chairman.

In May and June this year, several fires erupted on Margalla Hills and exposed the local administration's capacity to douse the inferno. During current summer wildfires at Margalla Hills turned so intense that IMC had called army helicopters for help on two occasion fire extinguishing operations.



Awareness needed

Even as the subject was taken up in the apex court, a senior official of the civic authority said that awareness was key in preventing forest fires.

Capital Development Authority (CDA) Environmental Wing Director Rana Tahir on Monday emphasised the need for educating the local community and sensitising them on protecting forests and wildlife.

"It will be difficult for us to control the situation until people respond responsibly. A key role by communities and to respond positively is must for the conservation of Margalla Hills National Park's (MHNP) habitat of birds, mammals and species," he said.

He said that it was alarming that since the fire season started this year, around 22 fires had erupted in the forests around the capital, up from the 17 incidents recorded last year.

"Margalla Hills house 200,000 people spread over 31 settlements, a majority of whom depend on this forest to meet their energy needs," he said, adding that awareness and promoting a sense of ownership along with empowerment projects for locals was the only solution.

"We cannot ignore their energy needs," he said.

WITH ADDITIONAL INPUT FROM APP 

Published in The Express Tribune, June 26^th, 2018.