ISLAMABAD, Dec 2: The District Army Monitoring Team has convened a meeting of the officials of Capital Development Authority (CDA) and Islamabad Electric Supply Company (Iesco) on Thursday to resolve the issue of the construction of a controversial grid station in Islamabad.

The decision to arrange the meeting between the CDA and Iesco officials to hear their viewpoints was taken by the in- charge of the District Army Monitoring Team, Brig Liaquat, after inspecting the site of the under-construction grid station on Friday.

The meeting was earlier scheduled to be held on Monday, but due to some engagements of the Iesco chief, Brig Waseem Zafar, it had been postponed till Thursday (December 6), Brig Liaquat told Dawn on Sunday. “We will hear versions of both the sides and then find out a solution to the problem,” he added.

According to a source, the CDA will be represented in the meeting by its chairman Mir Laiq Shah, the director-general (environment), Imtiaz Inayat Elahi, and the member (planning) Maqbool Elahi, while the Iesco chief executive, Brig Waseem Zafar, with some other senior officials will represent his organization.

It may be mentioned that Iesco had started construction of a grid station on a green belt between sectors F-6 and F-7 in Islamabad after allegedly cutting about 1,000 trees. The residents of the area opposed the construction of the grid station and took the matter to the Supreme Court and the federal ombudsman. The ombudsman had stopped Iesco from constructing the grid station in the residential area while the matter is still pending in the Supreme Court of Pakistan.

Meanwhile, the residents of the area, a main party in the issue, have criticized the Army Monitoring Team for convening the meeting between the CDA and Iesco officials. They told Dawn that they were planning to go to the Supreme Court in a day or two before the Thursday’s meeting to bring it into the notice of the apex court that despite clear orders of the court to maintain a status quo, Iesco had restarted construction work.

The residents of the area got strength when recently the CDA also became a party and issued a notice to Iesco asking it to stop work at the site of controversial grid station. Iesco, however, paid no heed to the notice. On Wednesday, a joint team of the CDA, police and the local administration launched an operation and tried to remove the machinery and other equipment from the site by force. Their effort, however, was foiled by the armymen deployed at the site.

When contacted, the Iesco chief, Brig Waseem Zafar, claimed the CDA had not cancelled the allotment of plot. On the other hand, the CDA official said the plot’s allotment was cancelled through the order No.CDA/EM-27(2025)/90/2125/429 dated March 6, 1998.

The Iesco chief further claimed the federal ombudsman had not issued stay order. He said the ombudsman had observed the decision of the apex court would be final in this regard. He said the Supreme Court had directed a national construction firm NESPAK to study the case and submit a report in this regard. He said NESPAK had given a go-ahead-signal to Iesco that was why the work on grid station had been restarted.