Daily Times

KARACHI: Members of the civil society and non-governmental organisations working for the cause of environmental issues have called for lodging a criminal case against municipal authorities involved in chopping down a number of trees in Peoples Secretariat area on Kashmir Road, East district.

National Forum for Environment and Health (NFEH) President Naeem Qureshi and members of civil society said that officials concerned of the District Municipal Corporation (DMC) East should be taken to task for felling a large number of fully grown and old trees in Peoples Secretariat near the Mazar-e-Quaid.

“There was no valid reason whatsoever for DMC staffers to chop down around 50 fully grown trees around the area. These trees were a source of constant comfort and natural shade for residents and visitors of the area to get respite from scorching heat during daytime, especially in peak summer. Moreover, presence of trees in the premises ensured protection and upkeep of environment of the area under constant threat of environmental degradation due to ever-increasing commercial and business activities in its surroundings.”

He added, “In no way any municipal and civic agency should act to cut down fully grown trees without taking prior permission from relevant government and revenue authorities of Karachi.”

They said that municipal agencies of the city despite being run by elected leadership had been adding to alarming phenomena of environmental pollution instead of taking overdue corrective measures for safeguarding environment of Karachi.

He went on to say that the Sindh chief minister, environment minister, home minister and the Karachi commissioner should immediately take cognisance of the situation and a criminal case be lodged with police whenever any instance of tree cutting happens in the city without any valid cause and prior intimation to authorities concerned.

“In the recent past, there had been some laudable instances when the Karachi commissioner had sprung into action and got lodged a FIR against incidents of undue tree cutting in the city for the sake of commercial activities.”

“One method could be blanket imposition of Section-144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure on city-wide basis to declare chopping down of trees an illegal activity so that police could immediately take action and lodge a criminal case whenever such a complaint was made to it regarding any instance of undue tree cutting in Karachi.”

He said that all other relevant sections of the CrPC and the Pakistan Penal Code should be invoked by police and other law enforcement authorities concerned to immediately catch and hand down a stern punishment to those involved in the practice of illegal tree cutting in the city.

“Moreover, office of the commissioner and offices of deputy commissioners in all districts of city should be fully vigilant to take swift action whenever a complaint was forwarded to them regarding any activity of impending tree cutting in their respective jurisdictions.”

“It was high time that the Sindh Environmental Protection Agency should initiate cases and duly penalise municipal agencies and civic bodies in the province, if they were found involved in instances leading up to degradation of environment and causing pollution. Cases against such municipal agencies should be referred to the environmental tribunal without giving them any undue benefit of the law.”