On Sept 8 I wrote an op-ed piece for Dawn on its editorial page on the
controversial New Murree project being planned by the Punjab government. On
Sept 14, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Pakistan took suo motu
notice of the planned project and gave the Government of Punjab 10 days
notice to respond to the court’s questions regarding the proposed New Murree
project. The Chief Justice based this on my article in the Dawn of Sept. 8.

Omar R. Quraishi
Assistant Editor
Dawn

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The article: also available at the link:
http://www.dawn.com/2005/09/08/ed.htm#4


An environmental disaster in the making




By Omar R. Quraishi


DESPITE its rejection by the National Assembly’s standing committee on
environment, concern shown by the Capital Development Authority, and
disapproval by local elected representatives and its own forest and
irrigation departments, the Punjab government seems intent on steamrolling
its much-vaunted development project, the New Murree tourist resort.

Planned 24 kilometres south-east of present-day Murree in the Patriata
Hills, the project will use 4,111 acres of what is known as a ’reserve
forest’ in the area north of Islamabad, for which hundreds of thousands of
coniferous trees will have to be cut. The Patriata forest boasts of the
highest average annual rainfall in the country - around 1,770 millimetres
annually - and is situated in the catchment area of both Simly and Rawal
dams, which provide almost half of the drinking water for Rawalpindi and
Islamabad.

The building of New Murree - being billed by the Punjab government as a
major tourist resort which will do the provincial as well as national
economy much good - will disturb the water collected by the two dams and
will lead to their eventual silting. Other than that, the project will lead
to soil erosion, increased risk of landslides, and will eventually end up
robbing the whole area of its precious forest cover. Proof of that can be
seen in the hills in and around Murree which have over the years become
completely barren and hardly any trees can be found on them).

Despite strong opposition from the NA standing committee (whose
recommendations are unfortunately only in an advisory capacity and not
binding) and by local residents and concerned citizens, the Punjab chief
minister has managed to get on his side a most powerful supporter, President
Pervez Musharraf himself. In fact, those now opposing the project are being
portrayed as being anti-development. In remarks on TV channels, Chief
Minister Pervez Elahi said that those opposing New Murree "did not know
anything", implying that such opposition was merely for the sake of
opposition and might be due to a vested interest.

In the same vein, the president, in remarks to foreign correspondents based
in Islamabad, was quoted as saying that cutting of trees could not take
precedence over development.

The point is not as simple as that, and perhaps the president is being
misled by those who are for this project. Most reasonable people would not
argue with the fact that development is quite important for a country like
Pakistan. However, what can be argued is the form of such development and in
what manner it should take place. The Punjab government’s whole argument
seems to rest on promoting New Murree as a project with great tourist
potential. According to the master plan, a tourist city will be built,
complete with five-star hotels, golf courses, residential apartment
complexes, shopping malls and even a monorail.

First, if promoting tourism is indeed such a top priority for the Punjab or
even the federal government, it should first try and improve the mess that
Murree, the country’s oldest and most well-known tourist resort, has become.
Besides, the cultural attractions of Mughal monuments in Lahore are perhaps
one of Punjab’s biggest potential tourist attractions, along with the
Harappa ruins near Sahiwal, or the ruins in Uch in the province’s south and
even these have failed to attract tourists in large numbers.

In the case of the Mughal monuments, the Punjab government has not batted
even an eyelid - in fact, it has acquiesced in their neglect and decay - as
its own senior officials have seen it fit to organize fashion shows, musical
evenings and, more recently, even a wedding on the monument premises. Or
take a look at the ancient Harappa ruins, where a ruling party MNA applied
for and almost managed to get permission from the government to build a
commercial establishment within the premises of the ruins.

Besides, at the national level, the country has natural treasures like the
Karakorum, Hindukush and the Western Himalaya ranges, it has the natural
wonder that is the Makran coastline (more accessible now thanks to the
coastal highway) and there are countless mountain treks in valleys in
Chitral, Swat, Kaghan, the Galiyat region, the more pristine and relatively
unexplored Neelum and Leepa valleys of Azad Jammu and Kashmir, and then, of
course, the more serious treks further north around Gilgit, Hunza, Skardu
and the Shimshal region.

The point in listing all these is that if such marvels of nature cannot
attract many tourists, then it is doubtful that a new tourist resort -
situated 24 kilometres from one that is already in bad shape and polluted to
the hilt - will. This means that rather than develop new resorts, the
government needs to improve the existing ones and also improve law and order
and do something about its negative image abroad.

Second, development for a country like Pakistan is indeed imperative. But at
what cost and of what nature? Shouldn’t the Punjab government’s energies and
ample finances be spent on other more pressing issues? It is perhaps the
richest of all the four provinces but that does not make it a Switzerland,
with lots of money left over to develop Alpine-style tourist resorts.
Besides, why not work on the existing tourist resorts like Murree and
improve their deteriorating infrastructure and non-existent capacity to
accommodate tourists.

Also, for the sake of argument, if one were to accept the fact that tourism
promotion is a valid priority for Mr Elahi’s government, then why do it at
the expense of 4,000-plus acres of pristine forest, and whose consequence
could well be a silting up and pollution of Islamabad and Rawalpindi’s
primary sources of drinking water. In addition, it has been widely reported
that no environmental impact assessment has been carried out for the
proposed project, a requirement (mandated by the federal government itself)
for all major infrastructure projects. Would it be then fair to presume that
such an assessment has not been done because the Punjab government does not
want to risk further opposition to an already controversial project?

For the record, the ecological and environmental value of the Patriata
forest is such that it has been designated a ’reserve’ or protected forest
since the days of the British - 1886 to be precise. After independence the
protected status of the forest was kept intact and remained so till 2004
when the Punjab Assembly passed the New Murree Development Authority (NMDA)
Act. The NMDA is chaired by the chief minister of Punjab and includes the
chief secretary and several provincial secretaries. The Act, like most other
pieces of legislation, has an indemnity clause which exempts the authority,
its chairman and members from being sued in a court of law "in respect of
anything done or intended to be done in good faith".

Interestingly, the Act also authorizes the NMDA to "perform any or all
powers and functions of local government" as defined under the Punjab Local
Government Ordinance, 2001, which perhaps explains why the provincial
government is acting in complete disregard of concerns expressed by the
former nazim and naib nazim of Murree tehsil who said that the project would
be disastrous for their area.

The chairperson of the National Assembly’s standing committee on
environment, which in principle rejected the New Murree project, is a ruling
party follower. In early July, she told newspapers that the committee would
write to the president, prime minister and the Punjab chief minister to
review the decision and to look for some alternate site. According to her,
the NA committee’s members had pointedly asked Punjab government officials
in a meeting questioned the wisdom of cutting down a forest that was over
200 years old to build hotels and golf courses, especially when alternate
sites were available.

She said that the members had noted that in the past as well, influential
figures like then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had toyed with the idea of
developing a tourist resort in the Patriata hills but had backed off after
told of the environmental consequences and of the impact the project would
have on Simly and Rawal dams. The members had also told the provincial
government officials that the priority was not building tourist resorts but
rather conservation of water and ecology and that New Murree would adversely
affect the capacity of the forest area to act as a catchment area for two
important local dams.

The chairperson of the NA standing committee also told this newspaper in
early August that the NA standing committee had suggested some alternatives
and hoped that these would be incorporated. However, given that the NA
committees act in an advisory capacity, and given that the New Murree
project is a pet project of the Punjab chief minister, it is quite unlikely
that the project will either be reviewed or an alternate site considered.

The question remains: if indeed a tourist resort on such a massive scale
needs to be built, then why at the cost of a vast forest which is important
not only from an ecological/environmental point of view but whose
destruction could well lead to a negative impact on the primary sources of
drinking water for Islamabad and Rawalpindi. Also, what is the need for
building New Murree when Murree is already there, and when local residents,
environmental experts, departments within the Punjab government, the CDA and
concerned citizens are strongly against it?

No wonder, the insistence by the Punjab government seems to lend credence to
the rumours doing the rounds these days that those backing the project have
a direct stake in its success - they or their proxies have bought land
earmarked for the project and whose price will shoot through the roof once
the project gets underway.

Email: omarq@cyber.net.pk


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The report in Dawn regarding the Supreme Court’s suo motu action: (also
available at http://www.dawn.com/2005/09/15/top9.htm)

SC takes notice of New Murree plan: Punjab govt asked to submit details
By Our Staff Reporter


ISLAMABAD, Sept 14: Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry has
taken suo motu notice of reports on environmental aspect of the proposed
’New Murree project’ and sought details of the project from the Punjab
Government within 10 days.

"Notice be issued to the chief secretary, Government of Punjab, to submit
report on the issue within 10 days," said a one-page order issued by the CJ
on Wednesday.

The chief justice took notice after reading an article in Dawn on September
8.

The writer had criticised the project for having potential to cause adverse
effects on environment, threaten the Murree Hill Forests and pollute the
waters of the Simly and Rawal dams on which residents of Rawalpindi and
Islamabad depend.

The CJ noted that the project was being pursued 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.

On Tuesday, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chief Imran Khan had accused the Punjab
government of destroying the Patriata forests in the name of constructing a
tourist resort.

The New Murree tourist resort is being built 24 kilometres south-east of
Murree in the Patriata Hills over 4,111 acres of reserve forest.

According to the said article, hundred of thousands of coniferous trees
would have to be cut or uprooted for building the resort. It would damage
Patriata forests and affect the average annual rainfall.

The forest is situated in the catchement area of both Simly and Rawal dams,
which cater for almost half of the drinking-water needs of Rawalpindi and
Islamabad residents.

The New Murree project, the article said, would affect the flow of water
into the dams and would lead to their eventual silting. It would also
increase soil erosion, hence risk of landslides.