February 14, 2025
By Xari Jalil
LAHORE
“Four years of working so hard on environment and wildlife – and now it all seems to have gone down the drain,” says renowned environmentalist Rina Saeed Khan. “What is going to happen to the work we have been doing – who will continue that?” she questions.
Rina expresses her disappointment and anger as she speaks to Voicepk following the decision by the government to dissolve the Islamabad Wildlife Management Board (IWMB) announced in a notification on last Friday, February 7.
Background
It is also important to note that Khan who was the chairperson of the Board which had been formed under the Wildlife Act 1979. As Chairperson Khan was responsible for implementing the Supreme Court’s order to demolish the Monal restaurant.
This action, which was in line with her official duties and the legal obligations of the Board, put her in opposition to the interests of the restaurant’s owners and those who supported its continued operation, though there is no evidence to suggest that she actively lobbied against the restaurant prior to her appointment as Chairperson.
Despite this, she was removed from her position as chairperson in July 2024. The reason given for her removal through various sources is that she had been actively lobbying for the removal of the Monal Restaurant and had filed a case in the Supreme Court for it.
Monal Restaurant Case
The Monal Restaurant in Islamabad – originally built in 2004 in the Margalla Hills – has been the subject of a legal battle and controversy surrounding its operation within the Margalla Hills National Park.
About two decades ago, the government and the CDA, under former chairman Kamran Lashari, felt that the federal capital lacked recreational places, hotels, and tourist spots. At the time, plots for high-rise buildings like Centaurus and Constitution 1 (twin towers) were auctioned for the highest-ever bids, and restaurants like Monal and 1969 area were established.
The restaurant was built on leased park land, and it opened to the public in 2006. When the lease expired in 2021, the Supreme Court of Pakistan began legal action against the Monal in 2022, citing environmental damage and encroachment on protected land.
In 2024, the Supreme Court mandated the restaurant’s closure and demolition, along with other similar establishments in the park. The CDA, however, challenged this ruling in 2025, seeking to reinstate the Monal. As of February 2025, the restaurant remains closed, awaiting the results of ongoing legal proceedings. Its future is uncertain, with the CDA’s push to reopen it clashing with the continued opposition from environmentalists and conservation groups in line with the SC order.
Court takes notice
On Aug 21, the Supreme Court in its detailed order had directed the IWMB to take possession of the restaurants including Monal, La Montana and Gloria Jeans and obligated the CDA and the police to assist the wildlife board. In a 13-page order, then-CJP Qazi Faez Isa, in a 13-page order, said that Monal, La Montana, and Gloria Jeans were in total disregard of the provisions of the Islamabad Wildlife (Protection, Preservation and Management) Ordinance, 1979.
“The Supreme Court ordered all the licenses of restaurants operating inside the national park to be cancelled and only for small kiosks to be allowed to operate inside the park,” specified Khan.
On Monday, Khan, along with Supreme Court lawyer Umer Gillani, civil society activist Nilofer Afridi and Mansoor Sherwani held a press conference to highlight the issue.
She added that the boundary demarcation of the park also now needed to be completed as a lot has changed in the last 45 years. “This was meant to be done within 60 days following an earlier IHC order, but three years later on CDA still has not finalized it.”
Conflict of Interest
Most problematic in this whole situation is the fact that the owner of Monal Restaurant is the brother of Cabinet Secretary Kamran Ali Afzal.
This itself creates conflict of interest, says Umer Gillani. “It was pointed out by the former CJP Qazi Faez also,” says Gillani. “Kamran Ali Afzal was summoned in court and Justice Qazi Faez had expressed his displeasure, and questioned him about this conflict of interest.
Bureaucracy replacing experts
The biggest complaint by environmentalists is not that a new board should not be formed, even though the Act does allow for the original board to continue for three years before it is changed. The complaint is that the new board – selected by the government – comprises top government officials while the original board comprised experts. in other words ‘the board has been brought under bureaucratic control.
“The recently enacted Islamabad Nature Conservation and Wildlife Management Act 2024 is being misused by the government to do what it wants,” says Khan. “Ironically, it was the original Board that pushed for the passing of this new Act, which was lying pending for over a year in the prime minister’s office. The Act was meant to strengthen the Board, not sabotage it!”
The new members include the secretary of the Ministry of Climate Change, the joint secretary (Admin and Development) of the ministry, the member environment of the Capital Development Authority (CDA), a senior officer (BS-20 or above) nominated by the mayor of Islamabad or the head of the municipal corporation, and the deputy commissioner of Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT). Additionally, Aisha Humera Chaudhry, serving as additional secretary at the Ministry of Climate Change, has been appointed as the interim chairperson of the IWMB. She will hold the position until the full composition of the board is finalised.
Violation
Supreme Court lawyer, Umer Gillani, says that the move is a ‘violation’ of law.
“The previous board was formed under the old law which was the Wildlife Act 1979,” he said. “According to that a three-year tenure was conferred on the board, which has been violated.”
Also under the new law the new board must have nine members, out of which four have to be government nominated. But there are only five people, out of which there are three government officers.
“The new board is not in accordance with the 2024 Act,” says Gillani. “They keep mentioning that there will be a caretaker setup, but law does not say anything about any interim administration. Legally speaking its very dicey.”
It is also important to note that if civil society allows the government to do this, then more will happen later.
“The Act came out months ago – why is the new board being formed now?”
Referring to the campaigning against Rina Saeed Khan, Umer Gillani says it is clearly because she, as chairperson, had been lobbying for the demolition of Monal, whose owner is influential. “When the Monal case was given a short order, no detailed reasons were given but they sacked Rina.” he says. “Later the SC restored her.”
Immediate Impact
The Sc judgement had expressed regret that the operators of these restaurants and those who had permitted them to operate, had in fact disregarded the integrity of the national park. It had ravaged its flora, and displaced and disturbed the endemic bird and animal life, said the judgement. Along with this an astronomical environmental cost was also borne by the public and will continue to be borne by future generations, then-CJP Qazi Faez Isa had lamented.
While the long-term impacts are yet to be understood, one of the short term impacts seem to point towards the felling of trees in the Margalla Hills. This is again underlined by Rina Saeed Khan.
“The CDA seems to be bent upon massacring the trees in Islamabad,” says Rina angrily. “Of course if they have the whole machinery with them, all they need is a rubber stamp, to just do as they like!” she exclaims angrily.
An environmental activist who has also been campaigning against the construction of restaurants in the Margalla Hills says that if ‘development’ happens according to the CDA’s vision, then the once beautiful city of Islamabad with its natural green cover will end up being hit by toxic levels of pollution.
“While other capital cities around the world like London and Paris are moving towards pedestrianization and greening of city centres, we are moving in the opposite direction,” she says. “In fact civil society should come together and make noise because it their children who will pay the price with their health and wellbeing.”
Environment and animal rights lawyer Altamash Saeed also spoke to Voicepk about the issue.
“Monal and La Montana were constructed in an area which was recognized as a national park and you cannot do any construction in a national park,” he says. “There were plantation drives initiated in those places to retake the land, to conserve the bio-diversity and wildlife there, which was in the letter and spirit of the 2024 Act. However some individuals were not pleased with this, so therefore the language of this Act was misused.”
Saeed is referring to the Wildlife Board’s recently inaugurated Master Plan for re-greening the 80-kanal land recovered from the illegal eateries. However, they have been facing hurdles in the process. The plantation campaign launched by IWMB on the Margalla Ridge was deliberately slowed down. This has prompted the Board to file contempt on CDA in the Supreme Court. Following this, the Board itself has been removed.
Saeed says that the current Board had been doing tremendous work.
“There was a sanctuary developed by the board, which was not being supported by the government in fact it was running on fund raising only. The animals which had been rescued were being kept there, including a black bear which had been the victim of a cruel owner,” he says.
“Sadly we have recently heard that the CDA was planning to do construction in national parks,” says Saeed. “Recently they appointed a chairman during the interim period, which is illegal. They chose the Additional Secretary Climate Change ministry. So basically they are trying to get the whole board under the government.”
Altamash Saeed, says they have also imposed an age limit that no one above the age of 66 can be a member of the Board.
This means that there were former members of the board who now cannot be included – experts on the subject.
“All these developments are anti-wildlife,” he says.
According to Rina, there are currently 12 black bears, one common leopard and one lion. apart from this there are monkeys, eagles, kites, and owls all of which have been rescued.
“Now their fate hangs in the air,” she says sadly.
Apart from the setting up on the only wildlife rescue and rehabilitation center in Islamabad, the Wildlife board has also increased patrolling and cleanliness of the trails and opened of Trail 4, the designation of a protected leopard preserve zone, introduced a popular weekly farmers’ market on their office premises and been successful in legal battles against encroachments inside the park like roads and polluting restaurants.
“Our only crime as Board members is that we have been busy implementing the Supreme Court’s orders,” says Rina.
“We aim to take this up in court again,” says Umer Gillani. “Civil society must stand with us, because we are in limbo.”