October 25, 2007	Thursday	Shawwal 12, 1428

ISLAMABAD, Oct 24: The environment ministry knows that the military establishment is violating environment rules in building the new General Headquarters (GHQ) in the federal capital but feels helpless in taking any action, Dawn learnt on Wednesday.

Sources in the ministry claim that the violation lay in the military commissioning the huge defence complex project without undertaking the Environment Impact Assessment (EIA). The EIA is a legal requirement for all mega projects and the Pak-Environment Protection Agency (Pak-EPA) can stop work for the violation.

They said the Pak-EPA had served a notice on the military authorities to conduct EIA immediately. “We have served the notice and are waiting for the EIA report,” confirmed Pak-EPA Director General Asif Shuja.

In their first response, the military authorities intimated to the Pak-EPA that they had hired foreign experts to prepare the EIA report but did not say when it would be completed and sent to the Pak-EPA.

Recently, the same violation by the civil builder of the multi-storeyed residential and commercial complex Centaurus in the city had brought him stern action by the Pak-EPA which seems to be reluctant to take any action against the builders of the new GHQ.

In the case of the military, it has only committed, under instructions from President Gen Pervez Musharraf, to develop ‘green area’ over some 8,000 square yards in the new GHQ grounds “to protect the environment of Margalla” in the shadow of which the defence complex is being developed on more than 2,000 acres.

It is a general perception that the massive construction activity associated with the new military headquarters in sectors E-10 and D-11 would degrade the environment and worsen the traffic problems in the federal capital.

An adjournment motion filed by the opposition in the Senate against the allotment of 870 acres additional land for the new GHQ has been hanging fire for long. The motion claimed the land in the prime area had been given to the military “at throw away price, causing a loss of over Rs500 billion” to the Capital development Authority (CDA).

Before the additional 870 acres, the CDA had allotted some 1,400 acres in Sector E-10 for the GHQ Complex. Construction was inaugurated by Gen Musharraf this year.

Some of the 870 acres fall in the National Park Area which could not be sold or purchased or used for any construction.

According to the military authorities, the decision to build the Services Headquarters at Islamabad was taken after the 1965 war with India. The army decided to move the GHQ to Islamabad in March 2000, but changes in the regional and global environment delayed the shifting, the sources said.