ISLAMABAD: The city managers will be planting 5,000 pine trees in the Shakarparian area, where a cricket stadium was being constructed by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) in collaboration with the Capital Development Authority (CDA).

A CDA official said that it was decided on Tuesday that the authority will plant 5,000 pine trees in the upcoming monsoon at the said site in order to restore its green character.

The official said the meeting chaired by CDA Chairman Ishrat Ali was attended by members of a committee formed by the Supreme Court for restoring the greenery of the site. Former Secretary Roedad Khan and journalist Hamid Mir were also attending the meeting.

The cricket stadium project was scrapped by SC since the area is part of the National Park

The apex court had recently scrapped the PCB’s project of building a cricket stadium in Shakarparian on 35 acres and handed control of the under-construction stadium to the CDA. The court had ruled that a stadium could not be built in Shakarparian since it is part of the National Park.

During the course of the meeting at the CDA Headquarters, former secretary Roedad Khan, who was also the petitioner in the case in SC, said CDA should plant pine trees on the site to which other committee members agreed.

The CDA official said it was also agreed that the authority will establish a walking track on the site and if the need arises in the future, the civic agency will also set up wooden benches.

An official of the Environment Wing told Dawn the civic agency was planning to plant 6,000 trees of which 5,000 will be pine and the rest will be other species.

The Environment Wing was part of CDA but was devolved to the Metropolitan Corporation Islamabad after the formation of the local government.

Talking to Dawn, Chief Metropolitan Officer Syed Najaf Iqbal, who was part of the consultative meeting, said that the rest of the Shakarparian area will also be focused on during the tree plantation campaign.

Mr Iqbal said the primary focus of the Environment Wing is to restore the green character of the site with plantation as a large number of trees were chopped down during construction work.

Published in Dawn, July 4th, 2018