Declaring the Pakistan Navy’s sailing club and farmhouses constructed on the national park land illegal, the Islamabad High Court (IHC) ordered their demolition and issued directions to initiate criminal proceedings against former naval chief Zafar Mehmud Abbasi and other officials for approving the illegal constructions.
In a 45-page judgement, IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah ordered the Capital Development Authority (CDA) to take over the naval farmhouses, saying that navy had “trespassed on the land situated on the embankment of Rawal Lake, and that too in a protected national park area”.
It noted that the club building “shall not be regularized in any manner for having been illegally constructed in an ecologically sensitive area in violation of the mandatory provisions.”
The court also declared that the occupation of the land was “illegal, without lawful authority and jurisdiction”.
The navy has been ordered to cease all its activities on Rawal Lake and hand over the land to the Small Dams Organisation, while the court ordered the Islamabad Wildlife Management Board to restore the natural habitat in the lake’s surroundings.
The court also appointed environmental law expert Dr Pervaiz Hassan as a one-person Implementation Commission to give effect to the Environment Commission’s recommendations regarding Rawal Lake and to investigate the environmental damage caused.
In addition, the auditor general has been directed to “conduct a forensic audit of PN Farms and Sailing Club to ascertain the loss caused to the exchequer, which shall be recovered from the officers found responsible for committing illegalities in relation to the respective ventures.”
It is to be seen what action is taken by the Islamabad authorities following the verdict by the court which has directed the CDA to put any orders issued to the navy legitimising the use of the land to build the club before the court and to demolish the building within 21 days. The court has also directed that the details of the entire enterprise be placed before the cabinet and the prime minister. Other such buildings can now also be brought under question and their legitimacy questioned. In addition to the Sailing Club, the navy had built farmhouses on the land which the IHC has noted was illegally acquired, or essentially basically taken into possession without any cover. The precedent is an important one and we need to see if further actions along the same lines are taken by courts or preferably the institutions themselves.
The Islamabad Wildlife Management Board (IWMB) should now start restoring the natural habitat in the lake’s surroundings. A thorough forensic audit of PN Farms and Sailing Club will help ascertain the loss to the exchequer. On the court’s order this loss will be recovered from the officers found responsible for committing illegalities in relation to the respective ventures.
