CDA Magistrate terms cutting down of tree like murdering a human being
Zubair Qureshi
A man was sentenced to one-year imprisonment and consequently sent to the Adiala jail for chopping down a tree in the federal capital.
This is the first time a case of cutting down a tree has been taken with a prompt notice by a court.
According to details, the workers of the Environment Force Muhammad Shafiq, Malik Khan and Shabbir Ahmed had caught Fazal Akbar s/o Muzaffar Khan red-handed when he was cutting down a tree in Sector G-9/2. The accused after felling the tree was trying to flee the scene by shifting the tree in a Suzuki pick-up. However, the force of the Environment Wing nabbed him along with his pickup and the fallen tree.
Later, they produced the accused before the court of the Senior Special Magistrate of the Capital Development Authority (CDA) Sardar Muhammad Asif.
The CDA magistrate after a summary trial announced the verdict and made it clear no one was allowed to cause harm to the greenery and green cover of the federal capital. Those found involved in cutting down trees or causing harm to the greenery deserve no mercy, he further said.
It is pertinent to mention here that Minister for Climate Change Sen Sherry Rehman a day earlier, had warned of an extended period of heat wave this year and had attributed the unusual weather pattern to reduction in green cover and cutting down of trees. The government, she said, had devised the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) in consultation with the provincial governments to set up heat wave centres and take precautionary measures in advance.
