Islamabad: The Supreme Court (SC) on Monday issued a ruling to check any possibility of permitting stone crushing operations to continue at the Margalla Hills National Park (MHNP) – and has called for the regulatory documents that allowed changes to the green zone, according to news sources.
A five-member SC bench presided over the case of environmental pollution in the federal capital – under the leadership of Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmed.
The chief justice observed that only a small portion of Margalla Hills is left intact – owing to the apex court’s interventions. The counsel for stone crushers said that stone crushing plants operated at least 1,000 metres from the buffer zone. They stated that the raw materials for a multitude of development projects is extracted from the area in question and asked the court to match their petition with the related records.
Justice Ijazul Ahsan of the bench said that national parks are meant to preserve the forests and its inhabitant wildlife. He further went on to say that mountains of the park cannot be altered within the limits of Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT).
Moreover, the court also said that it might order demolition of all establishments in the buffer zone if the need surfaced. The SC bench asked for an explanation on why the Islamabad expansion has not yet stopped and asked for a report on changes made in the green zone. The hearing of the case was adjourned for a month.
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