Daily Times

The Supreme Court on Monday constituted a five-member committee to be headed by Wafaqi Mohtasib, directing it to give its recommendations within two weeks on how Margalla Hills can be protected from disasters.

A three-member bench headed by Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar, while hearing a suo motu case pertaining to frequent incidents of fire at the Margalla Hills, also directed that necessary equipment should be procured to overcome and avert such incidents in future.

The members of the committee include a retired bureaucrat and also an applicant in the matter, Roedad Khan, deputy attorney general and representatives of the Capital Development Authority (CDA) and the Municipal Corporation Islamabad.

During the hearing, the chief justice noted that the fire which recently broke out on the Margalla Hills could not be extinguished for three days, adding whether CDA had no equipment to control the fire. The CDA officials present in the court admitted that the civic agency lacked such equipment. The chief justice then asked CDA to hold inquiry and determine who was behind the fire, which erupts almost every year at Margalla Hills. He asked the CDA to immediately procure such equipment. The CDA officials stated that after allocation of funds, the necessary equipment will be procured. To a court query, they stated that the funds will be available in the third week of July.

Meanwhile, the court adjourned the hearing for two weeks.

Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar had taken suo motu notice of the matter on June 4, 2018.

It may be recalled here that fire breaks out in the Margalla Hills every year, and every time it is claimed that a mafia that chops trees throughout the winters sets the jungle on fire in the summers to make it look like the trees were burned and not stolen.

However, on June 2 this year the fire that broke out could not be extinguished for nearly 10 days. No efforts were made to put the fire out for nearly a week before a helicopter was finally arranged to extinguish it. A case had been registered with Kohsar police against unidentified individuals who allegedly triggered the fire. According to the FIR, two previous attempts to set the woods to fire on the hills had been foiled by the Islamabad Wildlife Management Board. It said two people on a motorcycle set the fire at Margalla Hills National Park near Talhar Mor.

Published in Daily Times, June 26^th 2018.