Environmental concerns: SC to hear plea against metro project on 30th

A joint plea was filed by Senator Mushahid Hussain and MNA Asad Umar seeking CJ’s intervention.

ISLAMABAD: The country’s top court will take up a petition regarding environmental impact of the Rawalpindi-Islamabad metro bus project on December 30.

The court has already issued notices to environment secretary, the Capital Development Authority (CDA) chairman, and the Rawalpindi commissioner, who is also the project director.

A three-member bench of the apex court, headed by Chief Justice Nasirul Mulk, will take up the suo motu case nine months after Senator Mushahid Hussain wrote a letter to the human rights cell of the apex court on March 10 seeking the CJP’s intervention.

Taking notice of the potential environmental threat, the CJP on March 14 sought detailed reports from CDA Chairman Maroof Afzal and Metro Project Director Zahid Saeed as to whether the project was posing any threat to Islamabad’s master plan or its green belts, and whether an environmental impact assessment (EIA) had been carried out.

“These reports, together with technical reports, if any, by the Pakistan Environmental Protection Agency (Pak-EPA), Punjab Environmental Protection Agency and Climate Change Division [should be] submitted by March 18, 2014,” the court had directed.

Later, the PML-Q senator, who heads a Senate panel on the environment, jointly filed a petition with PTI MNA Asad Umar on May 10, requesting the court to restrain the provincial and federal governments from proceeding with the project till a verdict is given on the petition as they claimed the project is in violation of the Islamabad Master Plan, along with the Pakistan Environmental Protection Act, the Capital Development Authority Ordinance, The Public Procurement Regulatory Authority Ordinance, Public Procurement Rules, the Fiscal Responsibility and Debt Limitation Act, and other laws.

The Rs44-billion-project was formally approved by the Punjab government on February 1, 2014. It was announced that the project will be inaugurated on February 28, 2014. At the time, neither had the CDA given approval for such a project, nor were the mandatory Pak-EPA requirements complied with, the petition said.

The petitioners claimed that the Punjab government had no jurisdiction to plan or execute a project within the territorial limits of the federal capital. It is also stated that no legally-required consultation or participation was conducted.

The petition requested the SC to declare that all the respondents have a statutory obligation to implement and enforce the provisions of the Pak-EPA Act and no project can be initiated until an environmental impact assessment had been prepared, reviewed with meaningful and purposive consultation and participation of experts and stakeholders within the legal guidelines.

It further pleaded the court to order the Rawalpindi Development Authority (RDA) to proceed in accordance with the Islamabad Master Plan and formulate schemes as provided under the CDA Ordinance and initiate projects after approval from the Punjab Environmental Protection Department.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 23^rd, 2014.