ISLAMABAD: Scared stiff of the Supreme Court, the Capital Development Authority (CDA) has stopped a cement factory from quarrying limestone in the protected Margalla Hills National Park (MHNP) area.

“On March 17, CDA, with the assistance of ICT (Islamabad Capital Territory) police launched a massive operation and stopped ongoing quarrying by the Fecto Cement Factory in MHNP area and has also expelled all their machinery and personnel from the quarrying area,” reported the civic body to a three-judge bench of the court, headed by Justice Jawwad S. Khawaja, hearing an environment protection petition, on Wednesday.

CDA counsel S. A. Rehman submitted the report in compliance with the orders the bench issued to CDA chairman Maroof Afzal in person on Tuesday.

“Open pit mining is the most devastating form of environmental degradation,” observed Justice Khawaja.

As it set the next hearing for Thursday, the bench did not look amused by the CDA report, which put the blame for the unlawful quarrying concession on others.

It explained that the 30-year limestone mining lease to Fecto expired on June 7, 2012 but was extended by the Director Industries and Mineral Development ICT and the Office of Chief Commissioner of Islamabad for another 18 years. Of the leased area, 1312.69 acres fall in MHNP.

And the extension in the lease, under the Pakistan Mining Concession Rules 1960, was granted in consideration of the No-Objection Certificate issued by the Pakistan Environmental Protection Agency (PEPA) Islamabad, the report said.

When CDA moved to cancel the lease of the Fecto cement to comply with the bench’s October 25, 2013 order in the case, the factory management produced a restraining order issued by the senior civil judge, Islamabad, on January 23, 2011. The management also said it has a valid mining lease from the competent authority.

Since the 2011 restraining order is still operative, the CDA report said any action against Fecto cement will amount to contempt of court.

Ironically, the same charge forms the basis of the current proceedings in the bench – the non-implementation of its order of October 2013 by the CDA and the Chief Commissioner of Islamabad.

In its latest effort to streamline the affairs of MHNP, the report said the CDA requested the federal government on February 27 this year to re-notify the Islamabad Wildlife Management Board as empowered under Section-4 of the Islamabad Wildlife Ordinance 1979.

It said Member Environment CDA Mustafain Kazmi informed the chief commissioner about the Supreme Court directive to take strict legal action against the violators of law in MHNP and requested him to cancel the extension in the mining lease granted to the Fecto “under intimation to DG Pakistan Environmental Agency, Islamabad” so that possession of the forest area can be taken back by CDA.

Advocate Syed Nayyab Hassan Gardezi, representing the petitioners, also invited the attention of the bench that Fecto had lodged an FIR lodged by Fecto on April 13, 2011 that unidentified persons broke into the premises of the factory and took away explosives, 701 detonators, 500 safety fuse and arms and ammunition, and yet supply of explosives to the factory continues.

Lawyer Gardezi also requested the Supreme Court bench to order confiscation of millions of tons of crushed stone in possession of the cement factory by the CDA.

Published in Dawn March 19th , 2015

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