ISLAMABAD: Civil society members have urged the Capital Development Authority (CDA) not to start a new road in the national park area from Pir Sohawa to Bari Imam as it would destroy the ecosystem.

Besides members of civil society, Climate Change Minister Sherry Rehman also criticised CDA for planning the road.

She said constructing the road in national park area is not the mandate of CDA and also against the rules.

“You cannot take a road through..@WildlifeBoard green area. It is against our existing wildlife laws and goes against our Int’l commitments. Not your mandate to be eliciting comments. This is under @ClimateChangePK,” she tweeted in response to a tweet of Chairman CDA Noorul Amin Mengal, seeking input of civil society regarding the plan of constructing the road.

The CDA in February this year had expressed its intent to construct a road from Pir Sohawa to Bari Imam, but before proceeding further, the CDA chief decided to get feedback of citizens by asking: “The road to Daman-i-Koh and Peer Sohawa at times becomes congested. Should we plan a road from Peer Sohawa to Bari Imam and 3rd avenue to make it a loop to facilitate traffic movement or not ? Pl say [yes] or no.”

In response to his question, a large number of people urged the CDA to scrap the plan. Like many others, climate change minister also opposed the idea.

Twitter user Afia Salam responded: “Facilitate traffic? Through a national park? Is there even a question there?”

Another citizen Ms Fatima wrote: “Stop this expansion of roads at the cost of green spaces/forests/parks.” While, a citizen Afzal Khan said: “Another option: just blast the whole mountain away.”

Similarly, a journalist responded to the CDA chief’s question by saying: “No more roads in protected hills, don’t kill our lungs, start shuttle service instead and minimize vehicular traffic.”

Another member of civil society wrote: “More roads through protected national park in order to alleviate traffic congestion? There is an IHC order by [former] Chief Justice IHC Athar Minallah against any further disturbance to Margalla Hills National Park (MHNP). Please control traffic to Monal, an illegal restaurant (according to high court ruling), instead of funneling more,” he said.

Meanwhile, some users also supported CDA for construction of the road in national park.

When contacted, the CDA chief said the civic agency had not finalised anything about this project.

“Just to get feedback from citizens, I openly asked the question if the road should be constructed or not,” he said, adding that he has great regards for the feedback of people that’s why before any such projects, “I first get feedback from citizens, who are major stakeholders”.

He further said the CDA never announced that it would construct this road, rather “our team floated the idea and before taking any further step, I decided to get feedback from citizens.”

“Secondly, we can’t construct any road without the approval of Environment Impact Study,” he said.

Published in Dawn, June 27th, 2023