THIS refers to a news item (Dec 4) that lawyers associated with the Islamabad Bar Association(IBA) have encroached upon a plot allocated for a football ground in F-8 sector and constructed their chamberswithout fulfilling legal requirements.
The IBA president has given a very flimsy reason for this by saying the lawyers were `forced` to build their chambers owing to the government`s failure to provide an alternative place. One may remind the IBA president that an alternative place was provided by the Capital Development Authority at the newly-constructed building of the Islamabad High Court.
But citing reasons for their `convenience`, lawyers refused to shift their chambers to the new location. Since then, a number of incidents of violence have occurred. In a similar case, during the last PPP government, a large chunk of land was cut out of F-9 park (Fatima Jinnah Park) and the construction of a building was started, designated as `People`s Club`. A contract for construction was awarded to a firm owned by a PPP leader.
Similarly, during the same PPP government, a large piece of land was again taken out of F-9 park and was awarded in a dubious deal to an international chain of fast food.
It is time civic society, and environmentalists put a check on the chopping down of healthy grown-up trees, and encroachments on green areas, parks and scarce play grounds. Otherwise, Islamabad will soon lose its beautiful environment.
