“Since 2013, I have seen Islamabad losing its green grandeur as trees are fast vanishing from the city, making it only a dusty city,” Shams complained. The Supreme Court called for the commission to hold an inquiry into whether such tree cutting was legal, and ordered the suspension of Suleman Sheikh, the Islamabad Capital Development Authority’s director-general for environment. Asad Kayani, a planning and design expert at the Capital Development Authority, said the body was planting more than 2,400 saplings across the city to compensate for the trees being cut. Shams, who joined the protests against tree cutting, said the occasional tree has always been taken down in the city to make way for development. Protesters are saying “we will not put up with them chopping down trees in the name of development projects and devastating our lives”, he added.

Source: The Express Tribune December 11, 2017 06:33 UTC