Punjab govt has withdrawn Murree gas project, SC told
* Judge says Murree area can collapse due to lack of a proper drainage system
ISLAMABAD: Punjab Additional Advocate General Khadim Hussain on Tuesday informed the Supreme Court that the Punjab government had withdrawn a multi-million-rupee gas supply project for Murree.
The three-member SC bench, consisting of Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Justice Ghulam Rabbani and Justice Khalilur Rehman Ramday, was hearing a suo motu case against the planned cutting of thousands of trees for the implementation of a gas supply project in Murree.
The AAG stated that the Punjab chief minister has withdrawn the gas pipeline project from Lower Topa to Dunga Gali.
During the course of the proceedings, Justice Ramday said the people had already destroyed the Murree hills by building plazas and hotels on mountain slopes.
He remarked that “monsters were being built”, adding that the entire Murree area could collapse as there was no proper drainage system, and sewerage water was being drained into the mountains.
The residents of Murree had approached the Supreme Court to initiate suo motu action against the planned cutting of thousands of trees for the implementation of the gas supply project.
They said the project was primarily being executed to provide gas connection to the newly-constructed palatial residence of Hamza Shahbaz, the son of Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, at Dunga Gali.
Locals had repeatedly held demonstrations against the possible destruction of the Murree forest, but they had been ignored by the administration.
Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) had planned to supply gas to 26 villages of Murree and 32 villages of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in order to save the forest. The original plan was modified to provide the gas facility to just a single house and entailed felling of the forest range between Lower Topa to Dunga Gali.
The area is a 28-kilometre heavily forested strip with underground water reservoirs that provide water to thousands of locals.
Around 10,000 trees were planned to be cut if the gas project were to be implemented.
The total cost of the project was Rs 696.878 million, of which Rs 404.414 million were to be provided by the Punjab government and Rs 292.464 million by the SNGPL.
The Punjab government had also released Rs 250 million for the project.
Shafqat Abbasi, who represents the locals of Murree, requested the court that Rs 250 million supplied for the gas pipeline should be spent on the development of the New Murree project.
He told the court that in 1855 when the Murree City was established, authorities only allowed the construction two-story houses, “but now there were three, four and five-story buildings were being constructed”.
