Caves of Shah Allah Ditta Village , a Buddhist heritage site

Heritage treasure of Pakistan is one of the richest in the world especially when we talk about Buddhist historical sites but they are in no less in danger than the ones destroyed by savage Talibans in Afghanistan. Shah Allah Ditta village of Islamabad is  A small village with narrow streets situated at the foothills of the Margallas. Surrounded by lush green landscape all around, the locale is picturesque.

It is no longer rural now. Land is being cleared and flattened around as luxury stylehouses have been built into rocky facades of the hills and many more are on the way cutting into what was once a green landscape only. Worse still is the sight of a Shangrila restaurant being built where CDA is apparently investing millions to save a heritage site — caves that date back to the Buddhist era.

But the CDA officials are helplesswatch the disturbing development  as they cannot act against illegal constructions because the federal cabinet has yet to approves the draft regulations for Zone-III of the capital submitted to it.

Government’s deliberate  inaction virtually in order to allowsthe land mafia unchecked freedom, because they also get a lion share in bribes, to sell and purchase precious land by holding the zoning regulations notification,The CDA introduced the zoning regulations in the year1992, dividing the city in five zones but it has proposed separate rules for land use and by-laws for each of them.