ISLAMABAD: The hearing of a case regarding environmental degradation of the Margalla Hills National Park (MHNP) took a new turn on Thursday when Fecto Cement Factory Limited approached the Supreme Court and claimed that its entire operation had been stopped on the directions of the court, even though it was not involved in any quarrying in the area.

Established near Sangjani, the Fecto Cement factory has a manufacturing capacity of 780,000 tons of clinker per annum. However, as its counsel explained before the court on Thursday, its operations did not involve activities such as stone-crushing, through which other factories extract stones from the hillside with blatant disregard for environmental degradation.

But a three-judge Supreme Court bench, headed by Justice Jawwad S Khawaja, made it abundantly clear that it would take strict action against any violation of its Oct 25, 2013 judgment. Citing Section 21 of the Islamabad Wildlife (Protection, Conservation and Management) Ordinance 1979, the Oct 2013 verdict had prohibited activities, such as the construction of a tunnel or allowing stone-crushing licences in the Margalla Hills.

In its order, the court had also referred to a April 27, 1980 notification, which defines the length and breadth of the national park area that also includes land that falls in different villages, such as Mangial, Malach, Dakhli, Phulgran, Subhan, Mandla, Jhang Baghial, Malpur (Bijran), Rumli, Narias, Fadoh Dakhli, Noorpur Shahn, Ratta Hottar, Saidpur, Dhok Jiwan, Gandiar, Kalinjar, Saniari, areas bounded by the Kashmir Highway in the north, Islamabad Highway in the west, Murree Road in the south and east up to its junction with Kashmir Highway. Rawal Dam and the area within two kilometres of the highest water point on the lake is also part of the national park.

SC observes factory has nothing to fear from order if it is not quarrying in Margalla Hills National Park

“Our orders (from Oct 25) are more than clear and unambiguous; the main thrust of which will not be allowed to be violated,” Justice Khawaja observed in unequivocal terms.

Senior counsel Aitzaz Ahsan, representing Fecto Cement, regretted that CDA – without any notice to the factory – had carried out a massive operation and stopped the functioning of a Rs14 billion facility – which has been running for the past several years. The authorities had also given the factory an eight-hour ultimatum to remove all their material from the premises while knowing that the matter was currently being heard by the Islamabad High Court.

The counsel also denied that the factory was carrying out any quarrying work and explained that a restraining order was also issued by the senior civil judge, Islamabad, on January 23, 2011 in its favour and since then the stay order was still operative.

But the court asked the counsel to read out the earlier directions of the court and establish that the factory was stopped on the orders of the court, which the counsel did. However, he could not find clear directions on part of the court issuing orders to halt the working of the factory.

All the order stated was a direction to the CDA to carry out its job by taking action if any violation of section 21 of the ordinance and the SC’s Oct 25 judgment were committed.

If Fecto cement was not violating any orders or carrying out quarrying work, it should not be concerned about the orders of the Supreme Court since the directions are only confined to the precincts of MHNP.

Published in Dawn March 20th, 2015

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