The Supreme Court of Pakistan has rejected the Pakistan Army’s claim over the ownership of Margalla National Park land in the renowned Monal restaurant closure case.
Interestingly, the military department, Remount, Veterinary and Farms Directorate of Pakistan Army (RV&F Directorate), tried to claim the land’s ownership by more than a 100-year-old alleged fact that the said land was used by then-British Army for “production of hay for animals.”
In January 2022, the then Chief Justice of Islamabad High Court Athar Minallah also declared RV&F’s claim regarding the 8,068 acres of land in the notified National Park area to be in violation of law.
“Permitting land use does not confer its ownership, nor could ownership have been conferred on the Directorate, a non-legal entity. It also escaped the attention of the personnel of the Directorate that the only concerned statutory entity was the Wildlife Board,” read the 25-page detailed judgement by CJP Qazi Faez Isa.
The judgement also noted that the claim by RV&F to the National Park was on a very weak premise that in the 1910, the Veterinary, Remount and Farms unit of the British Army was allowed to use some land of the National Park for fodder.
“The Federal Government was correct in disabusing Major General Muhammad Samrez Salik and the Directorate of their fanciful notion that a 110-year-old permission to collect fodder did not nor could bestow ownership rights to such land,” noted the judgement.
Moreover, the court also noted that Luqman Ali Afzal, the owner of Monal restaurant, was bestowed the favour of a 17-year lease of the land by the RV&F Directorate signed by Major General Muhammad Samrez Salik.
The judgement also stated that no record was available to show that “the Federal Government has given any approval to execute the said Lease Agreement.” However, Afzal continued to assert the Directorate’s alleged rights.
According to the CJP Isa’s judgment, Mr Afzal unilaterally set aside the Capital Development Autority (CDA), his actual Lessor (who leased the land to Afzal), and the CDA lease while, according to his own whims, electing the Directorate as his lessor.
The Chief Justice also noted that Luqman Ali Afzal had gotten possession of the land from the CDA according to the CDA Lease, and he was legally bound to pay rent to the CDA. However, he stopped paying rent to the CDA and had the audacity to seek a refund of the rent already paid to the CDA.
“Rarely such audaciousness and complete disregard of the law has been witnessed,” read the judgement.
“Afzal apparently cultivated and developed relationships with the powerful, and his brother was in the bureaucracy and then rose to the highest position. Therefore, he may have deluded himself in assuming that he was above the law. He violated the law for years and expanded his restaurant by encroaching into and destroying the National Park. The protected status of the National Park was of no consequence to him and to the government servants who supported him,” read the damning judgment in the Monal restaurant closure case.
It also stated that Mr Afzal flouted the laws for eighteen years and had been given every opportunity to comply with them.
“Money, connections, influence and/or nepotism supplanted the law and the protected status of the National Park, first by getting CDA to execute the CDA Lease and then the Directorate to execute the FV&FD Lease. Every opportunity was given to Mr Afzal to comply with the law, which he had been continuously flouting for eighteen years. Probably it finally dawned that this Court would ensure the law is abided by and that it would also ensure that the National Park is protected, which made him and the other restaurant owners pause and reflect,” said the detailed judgement.
“The National Park land has over the years been encroached upon, which could only have happened with the involvement of the officers of CDA and other senior bureaucrats,” revealed the order.
“The National Park land is under grave and imminent danger. The rich, powerful and well-connected want to wrest it away for personal use and/or gain. This must stop. The people cannot be deprived of the National Park, its flora and fauna, and of the benefits of this amazing national asset,” wrote CJP Isa.
