Margalla Hills: For murdering mother earth, a slap on the wrist

Report submitted in SC reveals number of illegal activities in the national park.

ISLAMABAD:

Stone crushers, unapproved housing societies and a number of individuals continue to operate and build structures in the Margalla Hills National Park, in violation of rules governing the protected area, according to a CDA report recently submitted to the Supreme Court.

The report reveals 105 violations of rules in Zone-III of the federal capital, marked as the Margalla Hills National Park. Five stone crushers are operating in the Margalla Hills, quarrying rock and defacing hills. The firms are Fecto Cement, Asif Stone Crusher, Haq Stone Crusher, Akhtar Stone Crusher and Chaudhry Irfan Stone crusher. In Golra range of Zone-III, seven housing societies have been established without approval. These include Margalla Meadows, North Ridge Society, Al-Reyan Housing Society, Ali Town and two other as yet unnamed.

The report states that 77 individuals have established illegal structures including houses, rooms, boundary walls in Saidpur, Shah Allah Ditta, Garyala and Siri Saral villages adjoining Sector D-12 as well as Kalinjar, Chauntra Beri, Dhoke Labana, Pind Sangrial, and Shah Abdullah Zyarat villages.

In most cases after the CDA’s Environment Wing wrote to the Enforcement Wing to take action, the report states that the response of the Enforcement Wing was still awaited.

While in the case of stone crushers the report says all the firms have been issued notices and their cases are under trial in the court of the CDA senior special magistrate.

The report also identifies some 16 livestock sale points in Saidpur range, which has been acquired by the CDA. “Recently a case file has been initiated for removal of livestock sale points in Saidpur,” the concerned wing remarked in the report.

The report disclosed that besides others, a Federal Investigation Agency deputy director, Mir Mazhar Jabbar has encroached upon land in the forest area and that the case is under trial in the court of a CDA senior special magistrate.

The report contains the names and addresses of all the violators, nature of encroachments and action taken against them.  It’s noteworthy that in every case CDA failed to take action against violators and limited itself to issuing notices, fines and generating correspondence among the departments concerned.

Environmentalist Dr Jawad Chishti expressed doubts about the veracity of the findings, saying the number of violations were far more than those described in the report. He stressed the need for aerial mapping of the National Park to get the exact picture of area.

He questioned the “criminal silence” of the Pakistan Environmental Protection Agency (PAK-EPA) over the activities in the National Park.

Asif Shuja, director-general PAK-EPA termed the CDA solely responsible for that. He said according to the rules, CDA was responsible for administering the National Park area. “At first, they [the CDA officials] issue licences and NoCs to stone crushers and then they cry foul.”

“Pak-EPA is a regulatory body. We periodically write to the concerned quarters about the violations and request action. Implementation does not fall in our domain,” Shuja concluded.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 3^rd, 2014.