ISLAMABAD: Two parliamentarians from Islamabad have approached the Supreme Court seeking a direction that the metro bus service project should be executed without disturbing the green character of the capital city.

PML-Q secretary general Senator Mushahid Hussain Syed and MNA Asad Umar of the PTI filed the petition with the apex court through their counsel Athar Minallah.

The court is already seized with a suo motu notice on the ambitious Rs44 billion metro bus service between Rawalpindi and Islamabad.

The petition pleaded the court to order the developers and the government agencies to proceed with the scheme without breaching the original master plan of Islamabad. In addition to the petition, a request has also been made to the court to take up the matter on Wednesday, the counsel told Dawn.

The petitioners have named as respondents the federal government through the cabinet secretary, Pakistan Environment Protection Agency (EPA), the environmental protection department of Punjab, the Capital Development Authority (CDA), the Rawalpindi Development Authority (RDA), the government of Punjab through its chief secretary, commissioner Rawalpindi and the National Engineering Services of Pakistan (Nespak).

“The petitioners and the residents of Islamabad are supportive of development projects as long as they are planned and executed after addressing the environmental concerns in letter and spirit,” the petition stated.

“But the citizens as well as the petitioners are astonished that in alleged flagrant violation of the law and violating fundamental rights, work was not only initiated by the RDA within the territory of Islamabad but also the 9th Avenue and its greenbelts were dug up and the trees along the avenue fallen.”

The petitioners contended that the federal capital territory, under Article 1 (2b) of the Constitution, was a distinct and separate territory of Pakistan. The Capital Development Authority (CDA) Ordinance 1960 established the CDA for exclusively making arrangements for the planning and development of the city.

It was the statutory obligation of EPA to have enforced the provisions of Pakistan Environment Protection Act (PEPA) 1997 before the metro bus project was initiated, the petitioners said, adding the public hearing held on May 3, 2014, was mechanical and a perfunctory ritual in violation of the law since the hearing was held only after the work had already been initiated.

The failure of EPA to enforce the Act of 1997 and its working on the dictation of others has already caused enormous damage to the environment and, therefore, its conduct, ineffectiveness and violation of the act directly affect and violate the fundamental rights of the citizens, particularly the right to life.

“The petitioners and the citizens are further aggrieved by the fact that the loan obtained for the project would be spent and utilised without complying with the mandatory requirements of the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) Ordinance 2002 and the Public Procurement Rules (PPR) 2004.

“The metro buses and equipment would also be acquired in violation of the PPR.” Even the loan obtained is in violation of the provision of the Fiscal Responsibility and Debt Limitation Act 2005, the petition alleged.

The petitioners requested the Supreme Court to declare the metro bus project illegal and ultra vires of PEPA 1997, CDA Ordinance 1960, PPRA 2002, PPR 2004 and the Fiscal Responsibility and Debt Limitation Act 2005.

The court was also requested to declare that the EPA had failed to exercise its powers and functions in accordance with the law. Besides, the metro bus project and the environmental impact assessment prepared without a meaningful and purposeful consultation with the stakeholders and participation of the public was illegal and may cause adverse effect to the environment.

The court should also declare that the RDA should proceed with the project in pursuance of the master plan of Islamabad and formulate schemes as provided under the CDA Ordinance 1960 and initiate projects after approval from the EPA.