All new constructions in the federal capital have been subjected to approval from the environmental watchdog of the city.
This was directed on Saturday by a single-member bench of the Islamabad High Court (IHC), comprising Chief Justice Athar Minallah, as it heard a case about pollution and the environmental degradation in the federal capital.
During Saturday’s hearing, CJ Minallah directed that the defiance and violation of environmental laws of the capital by anyone should be considered as a criminal offence.
The chief justice remarked that such a stage in environmental degradation had been reached where accountability was necessary.
Pointing to the degradation and destruction of the Margalla Hills National Park, CJ Minallah said that the apex civic authority of the federal capital, the Capital Development Authority (CDA) was violating environmental laws itself.
With the Supreme Court has issued directions with regards to preservation of the Margalla Hills, CJ Minallah asked officials of the CDA if it cares about the top court’s directions.
While talking to officials from the Pakistan Environmental Protection Agency (Pak-EPA), CJ Minallah said that the degradation of the environment in the federal capital was taking place right under its nose.
“Are you sleeping?” he asked.
The court remarked that EPA is playing with the future of the country, adding that it has been given a set of responsibilities and some powers by the law to fulfil these responsibilities.
There are punishments for those who defy the law, he added.
At this, EPA officials present in the court said that they religiously issue notices to those violating environmental laws.
CJ Minallah, however, asked the environment watchdog why it had failed to act against the CDA even though it possesses the requisite authority to do so.
“Why didn’t you take notice of the environmental degradation done by the CDA,” the court asked, adding, “Do you know that the EPA director-general can initiate action against criminal activity?”
“The law is only for the weak. We have written so multiple times in our orders,” CJ Minallah pointed out, adding, the state does not serve the poor but only the elite.
Meanwhile, the CDA’s lawyer said that it was the EPA’s job to look after the environment of the federal capital.
“There was a time when we used to swim in the streams,” the official said, adding that now it smells too foul from the refuse and garbage dumped into it that one cannot stand near it.
The IHC chief justice noted that the institution responsible for taking care of the environment of the federal capital says that it lacks staff.
It is criminal negligence of the federal government, the court stated and ruled that no new project will commence in the federal capital without first an assessment and approval by the EPA.
The court later issued summons for the Special Assistant to the Prime Minister (SAPM) on Climate Change Malik Amin Aslam, secretary of the Ministry of Climate Change and Capital Development Authority (CDA) Chairman and Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) Chief Commissioner Amir Ali Ahmed at the next hearing and adjourned the case until August 22.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 16th, 2020.
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