The Supreme Court on Thursday ordered the Capital Development Authority (CDA) to remove the gate at D-Chowk to make view of the Parliament building clear from distance.
A three-judge bench, headed by Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmed, heard suo moto on encroachments in Islamabad.
The chief justice further directed the CDA to remove encroachment from the playgrounds and the greenbelts, adding if that would not happen then they would take action against the responsible officers. He asked the chairman CDA to take the map and visit the whole Islamabad himself and take action wherever he finds encroachments.
The chief justice noticed that the parking in the commercial areas of the federal capital had choked. The chairman CDA informed that they had identified eight sites where construction was done in violation of the original plan.
The chief justice remarked that not eight sites but the whole Islamabad had been changed. Houses or commercial plazas have been built on greenbelts. He said Islamabad was set up as a new city, but it was not looked after properly. If one visits crowded areas then one is not able to breathe properly. He asked the CDA chairman to find out its solution.
The CDA counsel contended that all over the world the cities were re-planned. Justice Ijazul Ahsan observed that in Pakistan, re-planning was done to make money.
The chief justice said that if the CDA re-planned the federal capital then shopping malls would be constructed at the sites of the Supreme Court and the Parliament buildings. He said the CDA officials instead of visiting keep sitting in their offices. "Let Islamabad be a peaceful city and don't make it a noisy place." The case was adjourned for four weeks.