RAWALPINDI: The Park and Horticulture Authority’s (PHA) beautification drive on Murree Road has stalled due to encroachments on the greenbelt near the Tipu Road underpass that people have refused to vacate.

The PHA has sought the assistance of local police to remove encroachers who have set up a temporary shelter on land allocated for a greenbelt on main Murree Road.

Acting PHA Director General Aqeel Khan told Dawn the issue emerged when the authority began its drive on Tuesday evening.

“We wanted to plant trees and make flowerbeds along Murree Road, but a man has constructed a temporary house that he keeps pigeons in, and did not allow the gardeners to do their work,” he said.

He said the authority’s staff tried to vacate the land, but people gathered and resisted the move.

“The land was owned by the government and allocated for a greenbelt after the construction of the elevated metro bus track on Murree Road,” he added.

He said PHA employees were stopped, and in turn sought the police’s help to vacate the land immediately. The police assured they would help, and we will launch action in a day or two, he said.

However, another senior PHA official told Dawn the land used to be the bank of Leh Nullah, which was filled by the contractor during construction for the metro bus project to establish their office.

After the project was completed, the land was empty and the commissioner asked the PHA to develop a site for a greenbelt.

“The PHA was running without any senior officials for the last two months, and there was no head of the civic body to execute the project to develop the green belt, as the former director general and two senior officials were arrested and suspended on corruption charges,” he said.

The beautification drive began when the provincial government gave district officer Aqeel Khan additional charge as PHA director general, he said. But when work began, the PHA faced difficulties vacating the land of encroachers.

He added that there were some other areas in the city where the PHA did not develop greenbelts, and the land would be encroached upon if they failed to do so.

The official said that during construction for the metro bus project, the PHA received 1pc of the total Rs44.8 billion budget from the Punjab government to develop green areas and destroyed parks.

PHA vice chairman and MNA Malik Abrar Ahmed said some patches and greenbelts were not developed as the authority had asked the contractor for the metro bus project to develop greenbelts, but the contractor in this section failed to do so.

“After this, the PHA started work to develop the greenbelt with its own sources. However, the encroachers stopped the drive. We wrote a letter to the city police officer to deploy policemen at the site and raze the illegal construction,” he said.

Published in Dawn, October 19th, 2017