The Islamabad Gold Club management has decided to sell out over 400 precious Sheesham trees that have fallen down during the last couple of years, although the club has not yet been accorded approval by the Capital Development Authority (CDA) to do so.
A tender surfacing in newspapers a few days back had invited the bidders to submit tenders for the trees which were believed to be cut down during the past few months but were later declared as redundant.
But, the management claims that these trees had fallen down due to storms and heavy winds.
The club’s finance manager Tariq said that these trees had fallen over the years and were accumulated inside the club and the management was now selling them to clear the area.
He said no new tree had been cut down, adding that these were the old trees which had been falling down for some time and the management had accumulated them afterwards.
He however could not justify the invitation for tenders which had been issued without the approval of the CDA.
“We are in the process of getting an approval from the CDA that is why it is also mentioned in the tender notice”, said that manager.
He further stated that 250 trees fell this year while the remaining were collected from the previous years.
However, an official who also used to play golf in the club confided to this scribe that hundreds of precious Sheesham trees were cut down by the management with the motive of selling the wood and pocketing the money for themselves.
“These trees were cut down in the hundreds in the previous years and dumped silently to avoid the matter from coming into the lime light,” this official informed on the condition of anonymity.
“Now the management is trying to influence the CDA to get a No Objection Certificate (NoC) for selling out these trees.”
Meanwhile, officials at the CDA had also confirmed that the NoC had not yet been issued to the club management.
In this situation, the legal experts stated that a prior approval was needed by the CDA to issue this tender which was yet awaited.
WAKE UP. 4 million trees have been sold since last decade in the area between Islamabad and Murree, illegally. I don't know who pocketed the money. In 60's and even 70's there was so much plantation and the whole area was lush green. Last time I visited Muree, Ayubia, Lathrar and Nathia Gali, the trees disappeared and the hills are just muddy. Some of it is left in the Nathia Gali and Ayubia, but the area towards Kashmir and Murree are very clearly are clean and without those alrge pine trees and other kinds of trees. Who is responsible? The locals or the area chiefs .
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