Continued construction of Margalla Avenue condemned

The Capital Development Authority (CDA) should immediately halt the construction of Margalla Avenue with immediate stakeholder consultation to avoid any direct confrontation.

This was the crux of the views expressed at a webinar on Saturday.

The civil society leadership and environmentalists strongly condemned CDA for continuing construction work on the Margalla Avenue without prior approval of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA).

They urged the prime minister to take immediate notice of CDA illegally entering 3km deep into the Margalla Hills National Park (MHNP) for the construction of Margalla Avenue, paying no heed to the Environmental Protection Order (EPO) issued by the Pakistan Environmental Protection Agency (Pak-EPA) for violating the MHNP boundary.

The webinar had been organised by the Development Communications Network (Devcom-Pakistan) on the subject ‘Margalla Avenue: CDA’s illegal encroachment into MHNP’.

Introducing the subject, Devcom-Pakistan Executive Director Munir Ahmed said the Margalla Avenue was launched in 2012 by Syed Yousaf Raza Gillani, then prime minister of Pakistan.

The well-hyped avenue became controversial since the day it was launched because of its environmental consequences. The Islamabad High Court (IHC) has already reserved its verdict two months back on the citizens’ petition.

Six more public interest petitions have been clubbed with the first one.

Special Assistant to Prime Minister Malik Amin Aslam in a message termed the matter “sub judice” and avoided any comment. However, he assured that the matter would be taken up with higher authorities.

Islamabad Wildlife Management Board (IWMB) Chairperson Rina Saeed Khan said that she was only concerned with the illegal encroachment of CDA into the Park. “We were repeatedly given assurances that the Margalla Avenue will not pass through the MHNP, which is one of the 15 areas declared protected by Prime Minister Imran Khan himself,” she said. “This is a contempt and violation of the Prime Minister’s vision.”

Hamid Sarfraz, a senior development consultant and the resident of sector D-12, said the Margalla Avenue will be a disaster for the residents of sector D-12 and other nearby residential sectors. “Pollution of all sorts will adversely affect the residential sectors around it, making the service roads vulnerable to traffic jams, accidents and environmental degradation,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 19^th, 2021.