July 15, 2026
By Hafizullah Storai Sherani
ISLAMABAD
Following the Federal Constitutional Court’s (FCC) decision to set aside the ruling that ordered the demolition of Monal and other restaurants in the Margalla Hills, the future of the National Park, Land Ownership, and environmental conservation have once again become the center of a national debate.
A three-member bench, headed by Justice Syed Hasan Azhar Rizvi, heard the review petitions filed by the Capital Development Authority (CDA) and the Metropolitan Corporation Islamabad (MCI), and subsequently nullified the Supreme Court’s August 21, 2024 judgment which had ordered the demolition of these restaurants. The FCC ruled that land ownership disputes will now be decided by the lower trial courts, while administrative matters will be handled by the relevant regulatory bodies in accordance with the law.
Moving beyond the legal battlefield, environmental experts view any commercial and construction activities within the boundaries of the Margalla Hills National Park as a major threat to its delicate ecosystem. Dr. Haroon Khan, Deputy Director of the Climate Change Centre at the University of Agriculture Peshawar, highlighted the ecological significance of the Margalla Hills and the dangers of construction to VSPK, saying, “The Margalla Hills National Park, which was established in 1980 and spans approximately 17,386 hectares, is an indispensable ecological asset for Islamabad.”
Dr Haroon said that the park plays a vital role in carbon sequestration, recharging groundwater, and regulating local temperatures. Any major commercial construction within the park limits severely damages biodiversity and destroys the natural habitats of species like the common leopard, the rare barking deer, and over 250 species of birds. Additionally, paved concrete surfaces prevent rainwater from absorbing into the soil, escalating the risk of water scarcity in the federal capital. Allowing commercial construction in the National Park would also weaken the protection laws governing other protected forest areas across the country.”
The role of Rina Saeed Khan, the former Chairperson of the Islamabad Wildlife Management Board, was pivotal in this environmental campaign.
She actively spearheaded efforts to implement the Supreme Court’s 2024 demolition orders. However, these efforts met with intense legal and personal backlash. In October 2025, an FIR was registered against her, initiated by employees, alleging abuse of authority, financial irregularities, and the unlawful transfer of zoo bears abroad. Rina Saeed Khan strongly denied these allegations, terming them personal and professional vendetta, and secured protective bail.
Later, a fact-finding report by the Ministry of Climate Change cleared her of all charges, declaring her actions to be strictly in accordance with the law. Following this struggle, the government disbanded the old Wildlife Board through legislation in February 2025, handing over its administrative control to the Secretary of the Ministry of Climate Change.
Waheed Murad, a senior journalist based in the federal capital who has been closely following the case since its inception, shed light on the underlying land ownership and tenancy dispute, telling VSPK:
“This case actually began as a tenancy dispute. Monal was built by the CDA, and until 2017, the CDA was the sole authority collecting rent,” he said.
Later, the Military Lands Directorate began collecting rent from the restaurant owner, claiming that the land belonged to the military. In response, the restaurant owner approached the High Court, arguing that two different authorities were demanding rent for the same property. The core issue is that the military claims ownership of 8,000 acres of land in the Margalla Hills. After both the High Court and the Supreme Court ruled on the matter, it appeared that this land might slip out of the military’s control.
Now that the Federal Constitutional Court has reopened the case, once the written judgment is issued, it will become clear whether ownership of the land has been granted to the military or if the previous legal position has been restored, he said.”
Commenting on the historical record of the case and the legal situation following the recent ruling, renowned legal expert Barrister Zarak Khan pointed out that the decision has not provided final justice to any party. Speaking to Voicepk about the background of the case and the jurisdictional battle, Barrister Zarak Khan said:
“No party has received actual justice from this judicial decision. The Federal Constitutional Court has merely set aside the Supreme Court’s action where it went beyond its legal jurisdiction. This matter began in 2014 when a public interest petition was filed in the Islamabad High Court for the protection of the Margalla Hills National Park, impleading the CDA, the Wildlife Board, and other institutions, though Monal and other restaurants were not parties to it. The High Court decided in favor of the petitioner, holding that neither the Pakistan Army had the authority to run commercial ventures within the National Park, nor did the CDA have the legal right to lease land there. Following this decision, the CDA issued eviction notices to the restaurants.”
He also explained, “The appeals filed by the restaurants against these notices were dismissed by both the High Court and subsequently the Supreme Court. While the Supreme Court upheld the High Court’s reasoning, it went beyond the scope of the case to order the demolition of the restaurants. Now, the Federal Constitutional Court has suspended the Supreme Court’s demolition order, but this does not mean the court has declared Monal’s lease legal or permitted commercial activities in the National Park. The court has simply defined the boundaries of jurisdiction and referred the ownership dispute to the civil court. The big question that arises here is: now that Monal and other restaurants have already been demolished and are non-operational, what practical benefit does setting aside the demolition order serve? The worst-affected parties in this entire process have been the restaurants and their employees, whose businesses were ruined without receiving any compensation.”
Following the court’s decision, the overriding question remains: should Monal or other structures be allowed to stand at the same site again? Addressing this, environmental scientist Dr. Haroon Khan put forward concrete recommendations based on international scientific standards:
“If any reconstruction or commercial activity is to be considered in the future, it must not rely solely on legal permits. Instead, it must be subject to rigorous scientific measures. This includes a comprehensive Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), a Biodiversity Impact Assessment alongside a Wildlife Corridor Analysis, hydrological modeling to assess the impact on groundwater, and a Visitor Carrying-Capacity Evaluation. If these natural habitats and ecosystems are destroyed once, their restoration will be extremely slow, costly, and virtually impossible. Therefore, the ecological survival of the Margalla Hills must remain the topmost national priority.”