January 24, 2008	Thursday	Muharram 14, 1429

ISLAMABAD, Jan 23: Military authorities are pressuring the city managers into constructing a service road adjacent to the site of new General Headquarters (GHQ) along Khayaban-i-Iqbal, though the project has been rejected by the Planning Division, sources in the civic body told Dawn on Wednesday.

The sources said now the Capital Development Authority (CDA) was in a fix about obeying the orders of the military or the bureaucracy.

In a meeting held recently, the Planning Commission officials opined that the proposed road would not benefit the public because it could not be used by them. Therefore, the CDA should not spend money on the project, the sources said.

According to the demand of the military authorities, the CDA has to construct some six kilometres long road along E-10 and E- 11 sectors, and the project will cost between Rs100 and Rs150 million.

When contacted, a senior CDA official said how the authority could start the project after it was disapproved by the Planning Division.

He said the authority had asked the military to contact the Planning Division and get the project approved instead of pressuring the civic body.

With the completion of the new complex in E-10 and D-11 sectors, GHQ will be relocated from Rawalpindi to Islamabad. It is being feared that the new GHQ would not only cause environmental degradation in the capital, but also compound traffic problems.

Before this, the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) had not only encroached on the service road between the PAF Complex and Khayaban-i-Iqbal, but also constructed a reception room/guard room on the green belt.

The CDA had served notice on the PAF to remove the structure and the fence it had erected to include the service road into its complex. However, all efforts of the CDA proved futile.

The PAF is of the view that it was a temporary check point, which had been set up with the authority’s permission. On the other hand, a CDA official confirmed that no such permission had been given to the PAF authorities for the construction.

According to the CDA laws any sort of construction on the green belts is a severe violation of Islamabad’s master plan.

The CDA was of the view that if the guard room was not removed, it would become a precedence for others.

The guard room has been constructed on the green belt about 50 yards off the PAF Headquarters boundary. Earlier, it was inside the limits of the PAF Complex.