ISLAMABAD -- For nearly 20 years, a restaurant called Monal was a go-to fixture for well-heeled diners in Pakistan's capital. Perched high above Islamabad's center in the cool hillside air of a giant, verdant park, the main appeal of the vast eatery was the vistas it offered, a window onto a fast-growing city.
Now, all that remains of Monal, which once could host up to 1,500 diners at a time, is rubble. Last year, in a win for environmental campaigners, the Supreme Court ordered its closure and the destruction of its extensive layout on environmental grounds, seeking to protect biodiversity in its home, a reserve in the foothills of the Himalayas on Islamabad's fringe that is 50 times the size of New York's Central Park.
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