FCC questions SC judgment ordering demolition of restaurants in Margalla Hills National Park

ISLAMABAD: The Federal Constitutional Court (FCC) on Thursday questioned a 2024 judgment of the Supreme Court (SC) which had paved the way for demolishing the infrastructure developed by the Monal Group of Companies, La Montana and Gloria Jeans, inside the picturesque Margalla Hills National Park (MHNP). The SC had ordered the closure of Monal and the adjacent La Montana restaurant on August 21, 2024, and they were closed the next month to protect the park’s biodiversity. Headed by Justice Syed Hasan Azhar Rizvi, a three-judge FCC bench took up a review petition moved by the Capital Development Authority (CDA) challenging the Supreme Court’s (SC) directions to the Islamabad Wildlife Management Board (IWMB) to take possession of restaurants — namely Monal, La Montana and Gloria Jeans — situated inside the MHNP. The CDA and the Islamabad Capital Territory Police were also ordered to assist the wildlife board in this regard. The SC had also ordered that the entrances to the area where the restaurants were located be barricaded, after which the infrastructure would be demolished — with minimal disturbance to wildlife and without damage to the trees of the national park. On Sept 10 the same year, the SC had dismissed a similar set of review petitions moved by the Monal Group of Companies, the Capital View Point Restaurant (La Montana), Sunshine Heights (Pvt) Ltd, and Brig (retd) Falak Naz Bangash of the Defence Ministry. While rejecting the review petitions, the SC had also termed the status of Monal Group’s Luqman Ali Afzal as no better than that of a trespasser, saying he had no legal right to continue possession of the land at the MHNP. Likewise, the running of restaurants by the owner of La Montana and Gloria Jeans was also in disregard of the provisions of the Islamabad Wildlife (Protection, Preservation and Management) Ordinance. During Thursday’s hearing, the federal government, through Additional Attorney General Chaudhry Aamir Rehman, supported the CDA’s review