Islamabad’s famous Monal Restaurant is built on military land in the Margalla Hills that the army now wants back, a Capital Development Authority (CDA) official has reportedly told a parliamentary committee.
According to Dawn, Dr Shahid Mahmood on Wednesday told the National Assembly Standing Committee on Climate Change that 15 years ago, the CDA “did not know it was building the restaurant on military grasslands until the army started claiming it”.
The committee was told that the 22,000 acres of land — that are now a part of the Margalla Hills National Park — were actually owned by the Punjab government.
Around 5,500 acres of the said land was allocated to the army, he said, although the exact year the allocation was made, was not stated. The CDA now owns 16,500 acres.
The latest survey conducted by the authority revealed that the land allotted to the army is right in the centre of the national park, and Monal has been built on it.
Monal Restaurant was built in 2005 and was a CDA property. The operation of the restaurant was leased for a 10 year period, Dr Mahmood told the committee, adding that the space was now being vacated and handed over to the army.
However, Committee Chairperson Munaza Hassan was more interested in finding out who had permitted the construction of a large restaurant inside the national park protected by the law to conserve its natural environment and wildlife.
Dr Mahmood said the CDA board at the time had permitted the restaurant’s construction, offering to share the board decision with the committee. He said several inquiries were undertaken to hold officials accountable for allowing the restaurant to be built, but none had been successful.
The committee chair then demanded that CDA shared information regarding the construction of Monal Restaurant on protected land.
Climate Change Joint Secretary Suleman Warraich said the government was unable to implement environment protection laws due to confusion over the demarcation of state land overlapping with private property. “Margalla Hills National Park was last mapped in the 1960s,” he said.
