The board has seen the return of the Khaleej pheasant and the common leopard in the Margalla Hills National Park.ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered maintaining status quo on an appeal moved by the Monal Group of Companies against Jan 11 Islamabad High Court judgment of sealing and taking over possession of the Monal Restaurant, situated at the picturesque Margalla Hills.Ī three-judge Supreme Court bench headed by Justice Ijazul Ahsan which had taken up the appeal however ignored the request to grant stay against the high court order with an observation that the court cannot undo the IHC order at this stage. He said the IWMB has been trying to preserve the national parks. A parade ground, an even bigger area cleared for parking besides the 77, 000 cubic feet of earth removed from it, the Islamabad Club and the Sports Complex are also institutional encroachments,” he told committee members. “Hundreds of square kilometers have been cleared by institutions in Shakarparian, which is also a protected area. He said national parks are threatened by institutional encroachment as much as they are by villagers nearby. He also drew the committee’s attention to several violations of environmental laws. The assurance came after MNA Ali Awan and the current IWMB Chairman Dr Anis Rehman told the committee chairthat constitution of the board has been pending for three years.ĭr Rehman urged the committee to strengthen the board, which is mandated to protect the national park in Islamabad and its wildlife.
“Its recruitment rules will be ready within three months after the board comes into existence,” he said. The new Islamabad Wildlife Management Board will be constituted in a month, Climate Change Secretary Nasir Jami told the committee. He said the Margalla Hills National Park was last mapped in the 1960s. The committee chair demanded the CDA share information regarding the construction of Monal Restaurant on protected land.Ĭlimate Change Joint Secretary Suleman Warraich said the government was unable to implement environment protection laws due to confusion over the demarcation of state land overlapping with private property. He said several inquiries were undertaken to hold officials accountable for allowing the restaurant to be built, but none have been successful. However, committee chair MNA Munaza Hassan was more interested in finding out who had permitted the construction of a large restaurant inside the national park, which is protected by the law to conserve its natural environment and wildlife.ĭr Mahmood said the CDA board at the time had permitted the restaurant’s construction, offering to share the board decision with the committee. Operation of the restaurant was leased for a 10 year period, Dr Mahmood told the committee.ĬDA officials told the committee the space is now being vacated and handed over to the army. Monal Restaurant was built in 2005 and was CDA property. Member planning tells NA body that 5,500 acres allocated to army in Margalla Hills were found to be site where the restaurant has been built
The latest survey conducted by the authority revealed that the land allotted to the army is right in the centre of the national park, and Monal has been built on it. The committee was told that the 22,000 acres of land that now constitute the Margalla Hills National Park were actually owned by the Punjab government.Īround 5,500 acres of this land was allocated to the army, he said, although the exact year this allocation was made was not stated.The CDA now owns 16,500 acres. He told the National Assembly Standing Committee on Climate Change that 15 years ago the CDA “did not know it was building Monal Restaurant on military grasslands until the army started claiming it.” ISLAMABAD: Monal Restaurant is built on military land in the Margalla Hills that it now wants back, Capital Development Authority (CDA) Member Planning Dr Shahid Mahmood told a parliamentary committee on Wednesday.
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