ISLAMABAD: Overcoming its embarrassment at the unhindered pillage of the natural assets of the Margalla Hills, the federal government provided the Supreme Court satellite images of the hills on Wednesday to help determine what parts of the forested range fall within the jurisdictions of the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT), Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Additional Attorney General (AAG) Mohammad Waqar Rana on Wednesday informed the two-judge bench of the court headed by Chief Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali that Pakistan’s Space and Upper Atmospheric Research Commission (Suparco), which had suggested the 2016 satellite imagery of the hills may cost Euro 10 per square kilometre, later provided the images free of cost.

AAG Rana said that, if the court desired, images from the past three years could be provided but would require two weeks to arrange.

The bench asked the government to determine afresh the territorial limits of various administrations in the Margalla Hills and submit a comprehensive report in this regard.

Chief Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali had initiated suo motu proceedings into the continued quarrying and cutting of trees in the area after taking notice of a May 19 television talk show which highlighted the havoc being wrought by a mafia quarrying limestone and feeding cement factories in the area.

Video footage aired during the talk show disclosed illegal stone blasting and crushing had been going on unabated and unchecked for 35 years in the Union Council Lora of Abbottabad district, destroying the lush green character of the hills.

The court was not happy to learn that government departments slept as stone crushers continued blasting the mountains despite the expiry of their leases and timber mafia denuded the Margalla Hills of its forest wealth at will.

AAG Rana told the media after Wednesday’s court proceedings that the court acknowledged and appreciated that SUPARCO extended cooperation within a short span of time. Information regarding the cost was based on earlier correspondence which became outdated after SUPARCO made fresh efforts, he said.

During the proceedings the Supreme Court deplored that almost half of the entire area of the Margalla Hills has been wiped out by the stone crusher mafia during the last three years.

The court regretted that prevalence of vested interests over the government led to unchecked blasting and denuding of the mountains. It deplored that 80 per cent of the quarrying and rock crushing activity in the Margalla Hills was illegal.

“Who is responsible for this damage,” the court asked, wondering the people patronizing this mafia.

Is the chief commissioner of Islamabad and other government officers still in deep slumber, observed the chief justice?

The case proceedings would resume in the first week of August.

Published in Dawn, July 21st, 2016