December 21, 2007	Friday	Zilhaj 10, 1428

ISLAMABAD, Dec 20: Military authorities have submitted the Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) report of the new General Headquarters (GHQ) in Islamabad to Pakistan Environment Protection Agency (Pak-EPA) but unlike others it will not be open to public scrutiny, Dawn learnt on Thursday.

Sources in the Ministry of Environment said the government has decided against holding the mandatory public hearing of the comprehensive report submitted belatedly last week.

Under the Environment Protection Act mega development projects cannot be executed unless their EIA is approved by the EPA after a public hearing on it.

All stakeholders including environmentalists, officials of concerned departments and representatives of civil society are invited to such public hearings to discuss the project from all angles. Fruitful suggestions emerging from the public hearing are forwarded by the Pak EPA to the concerned departments to be incorporated in the final design to make the project environment and people-friendly.

An environmentalist said public hearing is held to inform the public about the project proposed to be undertaken as well as elicit its opinion on its merits and demerits.

In the case of the new GHQ project, however, the government has decided to deny to public the opportunity to know how the vast defence complex plan would impact on the city’s environment.

When contacted, a senior official of the Pak EPA told Dawn on condition of anonymity that the Environment Protection Act provides for exempting projects of sensitive and strategic nature from EIA public hearing.

Since a military complex, such as the new GHQ, was by definition “most sensitive”, its security and other features could not be exposed before everyone, the official explained.

Construction of the new GHQ on an area of 1,400 acres in sector E-10 began in September 2006 amid criticism from opposition political parties alleging that it was meant to pamper and entrench the military establishment at the cost of public good. The CDA allotted an additional 870 acres for the complex.

The opposition senators submitted an adjournment motion in the upper house seeking debate on “the allotment of a prime land at a through away price for the GHQ causing a loss of Rs500 billion to the CDA”.

However the military insisted that shifting the GHQ from Rawalpindi to Islamabad had been long planned.

Residential sectors like E-11, E-7 and E-6, and rural areas of Saidpur, Shah Allah Ditta, Kalinger, Mehra Beri and Margalla Hills have been declared “sensitive areas” because of their vicinity to the new GHQ.

Sector E-10, the hub of the new GHQ, is adjacent to the area where the Air Force complex, the Naval Headquarters and the National Defence College had been established. The new GHQ is proposed to be completed in one year.

A source in the Capital Development Authority told Dawn the CDA had no hand in the designing and construction of the GHQ. Everything was being done by the army with National Engineering Services of Pakistan (Nespak) acting as consultants.