PHC allows raw material excavation for dam with consent of EPA.

PESHAWAR -- A two-member Peshawar High Court bench on Wednesday allowed a Chinese company to excavate sand and gravel from two spots identified by relevant officials for the ongoing construction of Suki Kinari hydropower project in Mansehra district provided it should not be having negative impact on environment.

The bench consisting of PHC Chief Justice Qaiser Rashid Khan and Justice Syed M Attique Shah directed provincial secretary environment and forestry, Mohammad Abid Majeed, to ensure that Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), industries and mines and mineral department had no objection to the excavation of raw material from the said two sites for the constriction work.

The bench also ordered that the environment secretary should act as focal person in the environment-related cases pending in the high court and all the other officials should cooperate with him in that regard.

The court had last year ordered the Chinese company, M/S Jiuzhou Hengton Machinery and Engineering, and relevant government officials to search for any alternate place for the purpose of excavating material to be used in the construction process, but should inform EPA and mines department about it.

Bench directs environment secretary to act as focal person in such cases

The PHC chief justice, while heading a 'green bench' dealing with cases related to environment last year, had taken exception to encroachments along major rivers in the province and ordered removal of all such encroachments. He had also banned excavation of construction raw material from the rivers.

The ban impose by the court also affected the Chinese company, which is part of the construction of Suki Kinari hydropower project, commonly called as SK Dam.

Through a petition, the company had requested the court to relax the ban for the ongoing construction work as the dam on the Kunhar River was of immense national importance.

Scores of officers turned up before the bench on Wednesday including Mr Abid Majeed, commissioners of Malakand and Hazara, Shaukat Yousafzai and Mutahir Zeb, respectively, Malakand Deputy Commissioner Mohammad Arif, Galiyat Development Authority Director General retired Captain Khalid...