ISLAMABAD - The Supreme Court of Pakistan Wednesday summoned all the forest secretaries in person at the next hearing and directed the provinces to submit reports on tree plantation projects within a month.
A two-member SC bench comprising Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmed and Justice Ijaz Ul Ahsan summoned the secretaries while hearing a suo motu case about fast depleting of forest in the country. During the course of proceedings, the court expressed annoyance over absence of Secretary Forest KP.
The chief justice remarked that hotels and rest houses were built on the Margalla hills in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Trees had also been cut down in Kumrat, Swat and Nathia Gali and the forest department’s timber business was running as deliveries were being supplied to homes, he added.
He said that Trees were being cut down and construction was being done in the national park area. Justice Ijaz said that Margalla Hills were part of National Park and asked how could there be construction.
The Additional Advocate General KP said that he would review Margalla Hills and would submit a report. The Chief Justice asked what would be done with the mountains that had been allotted. KP forest department officials claimed that the department had planted 190 million trees across the province.
Supreme Court orders provinces to submit reports on tree plantation
Upon this, Justice Ijaz remarked that if so many trees were planted, the entire province would be filled with greenery. All the work had been handed over to Allah Almighty by throwing seeds in the province. He asked where they did get the plants for 190 million trees.
The chief justice asked the officials not try to impress the court by showing foreign media reports. He said that the whole city of Peshawar was deserted.
Justice Ijaz asked the court had sought a comprehensive report on the federal government’s ‘10 billion tree tsunami’ initiative highlighting the exact number of trees as well as the areas where they had been planted.
The reason for asking for the record was that the trees did not appear in the papers only, he added. The chief justice said that there should be forest everywhere in the KP.
The Secretary Forest Sindh appeared before the bench and stated that 570 million trees had been planted in the province. The chief justice responded that he did not think the Sindh government had spent any money on planting trees. If Rs 2,323 million had been spent on trees, the whole of Sindh would had been green. Justice Ijaz asked on how much area there was forest in the Sindh.
The Secretary replied that Sindh had forests on 2.7 million acres of land. Out of 10 billion tsunami, 3 billion trees were being planted in Sindh, he added.
The chief justice said that the plant that grew in Sindh was eaten by goats. He said that there were encroachments on forest land from Karachi to Thatta. He asked the provincial government to grow forests in Sindh using all resources.
Addressing the Secretary Forest Balochistan, the chief justice said that trees were being cut down and burnt in Ziarat. There were no trees from Chaman from Quetta, he added. He asked the Secretary why could not trees be planted in the mountains of Quetta?
The Secretary replied that trees needed soil and water while the mountains of Balochistan were rocky. He said that around 22 million trees would be planted along the Lasbeela and Coastal Highways. He said that the forest department in collaboration with the army had initiated tree planting projects in Balochistan.
The Chief Justice directed the Secretary to plant trees on Karachi-Gwadar Coastal Highway.
The court ordered all provincial secretaries of forests to submit reports on tree planting projects within a month and adjourned hearing of the case.