ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Thursday summoned the state minister for Capital Administration and Development Division (CADD) Tariq Fazal Chaudhry over the lack of proper rules and regulations in the Capital Development Authority (CDA) for checking deforestation and stone crushing in the Margalla Hills National Park.

A three-judge Supreme Court bench, headed by Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar, also imposed a complete ban on mining and quarrying in areas that fall within the jurisdiction of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa without valid licences.

The court ordered the provincial Mineral and Mining Department (MMD) to decide all pending applications for the renewal of licences within a fortnight. The department will also furnish a report to the apex court.

The bench had taken up a 2016 suo motu on continued quarrying and cutting of trees in the Margalla Hills.

Apex court also bans mining and quarrying in areas falling in KP’s jurisdiction

The attention of the court towards the issue was drawn through a May 19, 2016, talk-show on a private television channel in which the host had highlighted the continuing quarrying of the Margalla Hills by an influential mafia as well as cement factories.

The channel also reported illegal crushing of the hilly areas in the union council of Lora in Abbottabad which continued for 35 years without any check, damaging the green character of the hills.

On Thursday, the chief justice made it clear that the Supreme Court was left with no option but to intervene when it noticed inaction on part of government departments to check violations of the law.

The court also regretted that those who had approached the apex court against unchecked and illegal construction activities in Banigala had themselves raised unlawful construction.

Chief Secretary KP Mohammad Azam and the secretary MDD told the court that 96 applications for the renewal of mining licences were pending with the department out of a total of 160 the department had received. So far, 64 licences have been processed.

But the apex court ordered the provincial government to decide the rest of the applications within the next fortnight, adding no stay order granted by any court would come in the way of the mining department. The chief secretary will himself supervise the entire exercise. The case will again be taken up on Jan 24.

Advocate General Islamabad Mian Abdul Rauf told the court that since 1960 no rules or regulations had ever been developed to check deforestation and stone crushing in the protected areas of the capital city.

He also referred to some dispute between the capital city and KP over the demarcation of the national park. He informed the court that illegal construction in the protected Zone-III had been completely halted.

Senior counsel Ahmer Bilal Soofi, who appeared on behalf of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), said the absence of a proper demarcation of 56 national parks across the country was an open invitation to offenders to encroach upon the protected lands.

At this, the chief justice observed that the court did not wish to take punitive action but intended only to awake the institutions concerned.

The chief justice also cited a recent court hearing in which the court was told that around 4.5 million gallons of effluent were discharged into the sea every day as a result of which international companies had stopped sending their ships to Pakistan.

Another two-judge bench headed by Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan ordered the additional advocate general Punjab to furnish the revenue record of the national park area encompassing Murree, Kotli Sattian and Kahuta to determine whether the land could be used for housing societies and similar projects or these were protected under the law.

The direction was issued during the hearing of a 2015 petition moved by Mohammad Asjad Abbasi, Mohammad Fiaz and Mohammad Imran seeking preservation of the hilly resort.

Under a Sept 15, 2009, notification issued under the Punjab Wildlife (Protection, Preservation, Conservation and Management) Act 1974, Murree, Kotli Sattian and Kahutta have been declared as the national park area where clearing or breaking up any land for cultivation, mining or for any other purpose is prohibited.

Published in Dawn, January 5th, 2018