Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Wednesday dismissed a report of the Balochistan government on the cutting of trees in the Pishin district for widening of Pishin-Yaro Link road.

A two-member Supreme Court bench comprising Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed and Justice Qazi Faez Isa dismissed the report while hearing a suo motu case initiated by the Chief Justice of Pakistan Mian Saqib Nisar in March last year.

Appearing on notice, Balochistan’s additional advocate general contended that the allocated funds would go waste if construction work on the road was not started.

Justice Qazi Faez Isa said that the court had not barred construction of the road, instead it had directed to save the trees from cutting as there was an alternative space to construct or widen the road.

He said that it seemed as if an incapable officer had prepared the report. He said officers of Balochistan were required to read the constitution.

The notice was taken on an application stating that 10-kilometre Pishin-Yaroo Link Road in Pishin was being widened by cutting about 2,200 trees on both sides of the road, endangering the environment.

It was stated in the applicant that these trees could be saved by earmarking an alternative route, however, none of the departments working on the project bothered to save the trees, which were not less than an asset in droughty and hilly areas of the province.

Published in Daily Times, April 12^th 2018.