ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court (SC) on Wednesday ordered the Islamabad Wildlife Management Board (IWMB) to take possession of restaurants, namely Monal, La Montana and Gloria Jeans, situated inside the Margalla Hills National Park (MHNP).

The Capital Development Authority (CDA) and the Islamabad Capital Territory police have also been obligated to assist the wildlife board in this regard. Headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa, a three-judge Supreme Court ordered that the entrances to the area will also be barricaded after which the infrastructure will be demolished with minimal disturbance to the wildlife and avoiding damage to the trees of the national park.

The debris will be removed and disposed of properly and not within the precincts of MHNP, said a 25-page order issued on Wednesday on an appeal against the Jan 11, 2022, Islamabad High Court (IHC) judgement of sealing and taking over the possession of the restaurants, including the most frequented eatery – Monal – perched atop picturesque Margalla Hills.

The judgement came after the last hearing held on June 11, in which the apex court had ordered the relocation of restaurants out of the national park area within a period of three months.

Order says area to be barricaded after which infrastructure will be demolished

Authored by CJP Faez Isa, the order also gave a roadmap by stating that after taking possession, the wildlife board would determine how best to utilise the mountain ridge on which these restaurants stood. The board may consult experts and environmentalists to examine whether the foundations of these structures should also be removed or the same be left in and used to make an artificial lake to collect rainwater which can be used to put out fires that erupt in the national park area.

The order was clear when it said under no circumstances should the building be left abandoned or derelict nor leave any debris on the site. Every effort should be made to ensure the land becomes an integral part of the national park again.

The national park’s land is under grave and imminent danger, the judgement said, adding that the rich, powerful and well-connected wanted to wrest it away for their personal use or gain.

The priciest land in Islamabad, the judgement regretted, was the land facing the Margalla Hills; prices start reducing the further one moves away from this natural wonder. Resultantly, every profiteer has set his eyes on this unbuilt real estate which probably is the most expensive land in Pakistan.

The park’s land has over the years been encroached upon, which could only have happened with the involvement of the officers of the CDA and other senior bureaucrats, the judgement regretted.

The CJP regretted that the government servants who collude with land grabbers needed reminding that it was the people who pay their salaries and it was them who they serve and whose interest they must protect.

Those who forget this fundamental truth are a drain on the public exchequer, the verdict explained, adding that the private interests and those marauding public lands must not be allowed to deprive the people of Pakistan and future generations of it. If we lose the national park the adverse effects of greenhouse gases, deforestation, soil erosion, pollution and climate change will be exacerbated to the detriment of the people and future generations, the judgement explained.

The fundamental right to life, and to live it with dignity (respectively Article 9 and 14 of the Constitution) is to live in a world which has an abundance of all species. It has by now been scientifically well established that if Earth becomes bereft of birds, animals, insects, trees, plants, clean rivers, unpolluted air, and soil it will be the precursor of our destruction, and scientific research establishes that nothing in nature is without value and purpose, the judgement said.

Last week, the Supreme Court issued a contempt notice to the Monal owner. The court took exception to a campaign launched against the court allegedly at the behest of the owner of Monal that the decision of relocating the eatery may render a number of employees jobless. “Prima facie, the smear campaign against the judiciary amounts to contempt of court,” the court observed while dictating an order regarding the issuance of the contempt notice.

Published in Dawn, August 22nd, 2024