Outcry over govt's proposal to place IWMB under interior ministry.

ISLAMABAD -- The government's proposal to place Islamabad Wildlife Management Board (IWMB) under the Ministry of Interior, and limit its role to an advisory body caused an outcry on Sunday.

Seeking amendments in the Islamabad (Protection, Preservation, Conservation and Management) Ordinance, 1979, the government seeks to place the board under the Ministry of Interior which is charged with the administration of Islamabad Capital Territory.

'The proposed amendments in Islamabad Wildlife (Protection, Preservation, Conservation and Management) Ordinance, 1979, will ensure the protection of wild life more efficiently and effectively,' as the per the government's Statement of Object and Reasons.

According to a source in the Ministry of Climate Change, under which IWMB comes, the proposed amendments in law and rules would essentially place the subject of wildlife under MoI and turn the board into an advisory body and place the organisation of the board under Capital Development Authority (CDA).

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'With the board drawing plans and policies, all powers of staff will go to CDA, which will be the executing body. We go back to where we started. CDA is a development agency and it is unlikely that it will understand nature conservation,' the source said.

IWMB was transferred from Capital Administration Development Division (CADD) to Ministry of Climate Change in 2018, after it argued in the high court that entrusting a developing authority to work on conservation of nature was not in the character of CDA, which was set up as a development agency.

CDA held a grudge against IWMB, when the board came in and took the Margalla Hills National Park (MHNP) away from the civic body. However, according to the source, the Ministry of Climate Change, which was initially interested in the functioning of the IWMB, was not eager to hang on to the board anymore.

Nonetheless, it may be recalled that in the last 40 years, under CDA, the MHNP saw much deterioration and harm including extinction of the cheer pheasant and the grey gural (wild goat) from the Kalinjar Valley.

CDA was also responsible for allowing commercial activities such as establishment of Monal and other eateries that dump dirty water into the protected area, cutting down of the forest, and expansion of encroachments.

'With that kind of track record, how could you justify that CDA, which by its own mandate thinks...