Monitoring Desk: Two references against Bahria Town (Golf City Mureee and Takht Pari Forest, Rawalpindi) have been filed by NAB.
The cases are as old as 2005 but nobody dared to touch Malik Riaz. In 2005, the Supreme Court of Pakistan took suo motu action to restrain construction on the New Murree project due to environmental hazards. This action saved around 5,000 acres of forest and eventually led to the project’s discontinuation.
A 13-member bench of the apex court, headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, heard the suo motu case regarding the ‘New Murree project’, initiated by the previous government of Punjab. Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry on September 8, 2005, had taken suo motu notice after knowing about the potential threat of the project to the environment. It was claimed that Gen Musharaf who was the then President was behind this project therefore nobody could stop this project.
While taking notice, the chief justice had noted that the project was being pursued by the then PML-Q government of Pervaiz Ellahi despite its rejection by the National Assembly standing committee on environment and the concern expressed by the Capital Development Authority (CDA), local government representatives and the irrigation department.
Rukh Takht Pari is also similar and it was also done during the Gen Musharraf era. A report by Survey of Pakistan showed that 750 acres out of a total of 2,200 acres of Takht Pari forest land has been illegally occupied and it is yet to be recovered by the provincial government. The Supreme Court in May 2018 declared that Rukh Takht Pari located six kilometres from Rawalpindi city near G.T. Road encompassed 2,210 acres instead of 1,741 acres.
The Punjab District Gazetteer Volume XXVIII, published in 1907, working plan of scrub forest of Rawalpindi West Forest Division for the period 1933-34 to 1952-53, revised working plan of 1959-60 to 1963-64, 1966-67 to 1975-76 and working plan of 1988-89 to 2019-2020 also proved that the total area of Takht Pari forest is 2,210 acres.
Similarly, 629 acres out of total 1,089 acres of Loi Bher Wildlife Park has been illegally occupied and this issue is yet to be resolved due to various reasons.
This wildlife park was established in 1992, along the Islamabad Expressway. It housed forest areas, a park and a lake, and was set up for the conservation of biological diversity and endangered wildlife.
In May 2013, then-District Coordination Officer Rashid Mehmood and Divisional Forest Officer (South) Ijaz Ahmed informed the Supreme Court that in 2011, Bahria Town had allegedly used Islamabad police and Rangers to prevent a Forest Department team from demarcating land in Takht Pari. The management was also accused of detaining the officials for several hours and invoking Section 145 of the Criminal Procedure Code, which prohibits unlawful assembly.
Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan, representing Malik Riaz in the Supreme Court, defended the businessman by citing his charitable work, including providing medicines to the underprivileged and food to the needy. However, the court, while acknowledging Mr Riaz’s philanthropy, remarked that his case fell within the proverbial saying: “Rob Peter to pay Paul.”
