ISLAMABAD: On Monday, Deputy Commissioner Shoaib Ali denied rumors that Bahria Town had been given access to a portion of the forest property in Lohi Bher and asserted that no development was taking place there.
He stated that neither had the site been allocated to any private home development nor was any building taking place on the forest land.
The social media accounts claimed that Bahria Town in Lohi Bher received the forest property as a gift from the Punjab government, since Loi Bher Wildlife Park, Media Town Block-A, and Bahria Town are all close to the forest.
According to sources near the wildlife park, which was established in 1992 for the conservation of biological variety and endangered animals, the Punjab government has protected this forest area.
The details show that the assistant commissioner headed a team that the deputy commissioner stated was deployed in response to the complaints, but the team discovered no work and said that no private housing society has been granted access to the forest property.
On the other hand, he said that the Parks and Horticulture Authority (PHA), Rawalpindi, was currently building a park next to the forest, but a senior official claimed that numerous private housing groups wanted the site.
The official said that in the previous 30 years, the amount of forest area had already decreased as 1,087 acres of Loi Bher’s forest area were given to the forest department prior to the separation, while 2016 saw the wildlife department receive control of the Loi Bher forest.
He said that the area’s mushrooming housing societies had caused the land’s size to be decreased to 460 acres.
The property between the park and Bahria Town, according to Punjab Wildlife Department Director Irfa Batool, is under the control of the forest department.
According to certain officials, the area should be protected by the Rawalpindi Development Authority (RDA) but Tariq Mehmood Murtaza, the chairman of the RDA, informed that the civic organization did not own the land in Lohi Bher.
After hearing the claims, he said that he checked the records after asking RDA Director General Saif Anwar Jappa to ensure that the region was not within RDA’s control.
