Court summons SAPM over encroachments in MHNP

The Islamabad High Court (IHC) has termed the measures taken by the government to end encroachments on Margalla Hills National Park (MHNP) unsatisfactory.

IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah expressed his annoyance with the Capital Development Authority (CDA) and other agencies for not taking steps for the protection of the national park and summoned Special Assistant to the Prime Minister Malik Amin Aslam and Islamabad Wildlife Management Board (IWMB) chairman at the next hearing.

CDA officials informed the court that the civic agency did not allot the site to the Islamabad Naval Golf Course and has also served a notice to shift it. They said that the boundary wall of the golf course was built in 2012 owing to the security threat.

The court asked why the encroached land in the national park has not been recovered so far, adding that the matter has raised many questions of the public interest.

Additional Attorney General (AAG) Qasim Wudood said that a committee comprising the IWMV chairman, SAPM Malik Amin Aslam and the CDA chairman surveyed the national park.

He said there were multiple categories of Margalla Hills. At this, the IHC chief justice said there was no category and it was only one national park whose ownership resides with the federal government. The AAG said the MHNP covers an area of 31,000 acres.

The judge remarked that the CDA was the final authority and questioned how the special assistant conducted the survey and whether the naval golf course was illegal.

The IHC chief justice cited a report which said that the golf course has been constructed on the encroached land. He asked the AAG as to who was responsible for it if it was true.

IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah remarked that it was not possible that anybody to start building a golf course without the knowledge of the civic agency and asked if the CDA was sleeping.

He asked whether the naval headquarters was illegal and whether the CDA had approved it. The AAG sought time from the court to ascertain the matter.

CDA officials said that the naval golf course was not constructed on the allotted land. The judge remarked that the CDA destroys the huts of the poor without serving any notice and why it did not do the same for encroachments in the national park.

The court lambasted the CDA and asked who was heading the civic agency back then when the golf course was being built.

The CDA officials said the boundary wall around the golf course was built in 2012 due to security threats while they have so far removed 157 encroachments from the MHNP. They said that it was now a defence organisation and they have served notices to it as well.

The judge asked should the court be shut down the court and was that the rule of law.

The AAG said that the Punjab government had awarded 8,000 acres of land to the Military Land and Cantonment.

The IHC chief justice said that the ownership of the national park could not be changed and neither it has been written in the master plan.

The hearing of the case was adjourned till January 11.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 9^th, 2021.