By Ali Jabbar
ISLAMABAD, September 2026: Islamabad's F-9 Park, conceived as a major component of the capital's original master plan, has undergone a series of changes over more than three decades, raising questions among planners, environmentalists and residents about the protection of public green spaces and adherence to the city's planning framework.
Spread over roughly 770 acres, F-9 Park was envisaged as a focal point of the planned capital. Its design was developed with the involvement of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), the Capital Development Authority's (CDA) planning and environment wings and landscape planning experts. Several elements of the original concept were subsequently implemented, including the park's principal circulation route, walking tracks, a cricket ground and public facilities around its entrances.
Historical satellite imagery reviewed for this report indicates that the park's boundary and several of its principal features remained broadly consistent with the JICA-era design in the early 2000s. The original planning concept also included public squares, cultural facilities, sports infrastructure and water bodies intended to serve recreational and environmental functions.
One of the most significant disputes involving F-9 Park emerged in the late 2000s over a commercial plot occupied by McDonald's. According to CDA's submissions in the Supreme Court, the site had been designated under the original planning scheme for a commercial cluster including food outlets, parking, an art gallery and cultural facilities. The authority maintained that the dispute resulted from an incorrect demarcation that had placed the plot within the park's green zone.
Following directions of the Supreme Court, the plot was auctioned, with compensation for infrastructure already constructed. The case subsequently became an important reference point in discussions over the distinction between formally designated commercial areas and the park's protected green space. The record reviewed for this report also indicates that a commitment to develop replacement parkland was made at the time, although its implementation could not be established from the material examined.
In 2009, architect Nayyar Ali Dada was commissioned to revise the park's master plan. While much of the existing layout was retained, the revised scheme introduced changes, including an amphitheatre, café, artificial rock feature and Bagh-e-Shuhada. A major departure identified by planning sources was the replacement of a proposed lake feature with a private club, while some cultural components envisaged in earlier plans were also altered or relocated.
The debate over F-9 has since expanded beyond individual structures to the park's overall boundaries. Planning sources say proposals have emerged for development along the park's southern edge adjoining the Islamabad Expressway. Sources familiar with internal deliberations say the CDA has agreed in principle to the release of part of this tract, although the precise legal and planning status of the proposed transfer requires public documentation.
The concerns surrounding F-9 are part of a wider debate over Islamabad's green infrastructure. The city's original planning concept relied heavily on wide rights-of-way, green belts, linear parks and tree-lined parkways. Planning material reviewed for this report points to a major reduction in the green area along the Srinagar Highway, where the planned right-of-way was reduced by about 400 feet, affecting an approximately 10-kilometre-long linear green corridor estimated in the source material at around 400 acres.
The changes have coincided with the construction of major transport and other infrastructure along parts of the corridor. The source material also identifies additional development activity and encroachments that, according to planning critics, have further reduced the continuity of Islamabad's green network.
Concerns have also been raised about the condition of other planned public spaces, including areas in G-6, G-7 and F-7, as well as changes to road rights-of-way and pedestrian infrastructure. These examples, however, involve separate planning and legal circumstances and require individual verification before conclusions can be drawn about their status.
Planning sources further point to institutional weaknesses within the CDA, including long-standing vacancies in technical positions such as urban planning, cartography, traffic engineering and research. They argue that inadequate technical capacity can weaken the consistent implementation and monitoring of a city's master plan.
Residents and urban planning researchers contacted for the investigation expressed concern about the cumulative effect of incremental changes. One recurring concern was that individually justified alterations could, over time, produce a substantial change in the character and extent of public green space.
The CDA has maintained in court proceedings and planning records that land-use decisions concerning commercial plots in F-9 were grounded in the original JICA-era classification and, in the McDonald's case, were undertaken under judicial supervision. Available material reviewed for this report, however, does not establish a comprehensive public accounting of all changes to the park's footprint since its establishment.