PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court on Thursday directed the district administration of Abbottabad to conduct an inquiry into the alleged encroachment of the forest land of the Ayubia National Park for constructing a five-star multi-storey hotel in Nathiagali tourist area.

A bench consisting of Chief Justice Qaiser Rashid Khan and Justice Syed Arshad Ali took notice of the issue while hearing different petitions related to environment.

The bench directed additional deputy commissioner Mohammad Shahab to visit the site, look into the matter, and submit a report to it.

It observed that in one of the hearings, the director general of Galiyat Development Authority showed up and denied the forest land encroachment allegation, so if the claim was found to be false, action would be taken against the DG.

Asks official to visit site of five-star hotel in Nathiagali

Senior advocate from Hazara division Sardar Nasir Aslam informed the bench that the ongoing construction of the five-star hotel violated the rules.

He pointed out that around six kanals of forest land of the Ayubia National Park had been included in the land allotted to the relevant company for the hotel, which was contrary to the law.

The bench, known as green bench, took up for hearing different environment-related petitions filed by lawyers.

During previous hearing, the court had ordered the removal of encroachments alongside the Swat, Kunhar and Chitral rivers.

Several administrative officers appeared before the bench. They included commissioner of Malakand division Zaheerul Islam, Swat deputy commissioner Junaid Khan, Abbottabad ADC Mohammad Shahab and others. Advocate General Shumail Ahmad Butt and additional advocate general Syed Sikandar Hayat Shah also turned up.

Zaheerul Islam said in light of the court’s order, the administration had so far demolished 68 hotels for being illegally built on the riverbed.

He said all leases of the extraction of sand from the river were also cancelled, while no new licences were issued.

An assistant commissioner in Hazara informed the court that the administration had removed around 160 big structures and 6,000 small ones alongside the rivers in the region.

Advocate Babar Khan Yousafzai appeared for some investors and said their clients had heavily invested in the Samandar Katha Lake project near Nathiagali after lawfully winning a government contract, but it was destroyed on the orders of the high court. He sought compensation for the petitioners.

However, the bench observed that the investors should sue the officers, who were involved in the illegal act of awarding the project contract.

The bench was also informed that the boats sailing in the famous Saiful Malook Lake were also confiscated by the administration.

The bench, however, observed that all those actions were taken on its orders.

The chief justice wondered what the relevant officers were doing as those boats sailed in the lake before the issuance of the court’s orders.

The bench observed that it won’t make any compromise on environment, so all relevant officers should ramp up their efforts to implement its orders.

The chief justice observed that the country would be facing an acute scarcity of water in future but nobody was bothered about it. He added that unfortunately, the people continued to encroach on the rivers but the relevant officials remained in slumber.

Published in Dawn, September 17th, 2021