Park rules violation: Cement factory removal a test case for admin

In compliance of SC order, CDA to submit report of park rules’ violations in Margalla Hills.

ISLAMABAD:

In the backdrop of a recent Supreme Court judgment in the Margalla Hills Tunnel Project case, city managers have renewed efforts to stem violations in the National Park area.

Officials of the Capital Development Authority (CDA) are formulating a compliance report sought by the country’s top court through its judgment in the case.

“The report will be submitted in the Supreme Court in the next few days,” said an official requesting anonymity.



“The CDA shall put up a report that no activity of constructing a tunnel or crushing or encroachment or any other activity in the National Park is going on. If there is any such activity, the same shall be stopped at once. And a compliance report be submitted with the court,” the judgment had stated.

The authority had informed the court during the earlier hearings that no tunnel project is under consideration.

But there are several other activities going on in the park area. The biggest one is a cement factory. Stretching over 2,522 acres within the reserved area, the illegality is a test case for CDA. The authority will inform the court that it has already withdrawn a no-objection certificate it had issued earlier over extending Fecto’s lease agreement by the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) administration.

The administration had granted an 18-year lease extension to Fecto on December 21, 2011 in alleged violation of several laws governing the area, including Islamabad Wildlife (Protection, Preservation, Conservation and Management) Ordinance 1979, the Islamabad (Preservation of Landscape) Ordinance 1966 and Forest Act 1927.

An area covering around 17,386 hectares was declared National Park on April 27, 1980. However, during the regime of General Ziaul Haq, the city administration on June 8, 1982, granted permission for establishing a cement factory in the area. The initial permission was granted for a period of 30 years, extendable for another term.



The issue first caught the attention of high ups in April 1991, when then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif intervened and directed to stop such activities in the area. “Most of the crushing plants in the area were closed, but Fecto opted to take the issue to court,” informed an official privy to the developments.

Later, ICT officials granted a lease extension in 2011 without CDA’s approval. Moreover, the management of the cement company on August 6, 2012 also obtained a no-objection certificate from the CDA.

The CDA withdrew the certificate on July 11 this year and directed the chief commissioner’s office to cancel the lease extension but that is yet to happen.

A reliable source in the authority said CDA will point out violations by the cement factory and encroachments in Shah Allah Ditta area of the National Park along with the establishment of a hotel, La Montana, owned by Dr Amjad, a close aide of former president Pervez Musharraf.

Talking to The Express Tribune, Islamabad Chief Commissioner Jawad Paul said the issue was under consideration. Paul said the lease extension could not be cancelled at once as it was granted by his predecessor on the basis of prevailing rules and laws.

“We will proceed further within the ambit of law,” he said, adding that a decision would be taken keeping in mind the legal aspects of the case.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 7^th, 2013.