Pollution: Court censures K-P over filth, poor sanitation in Peshawar

Says official neglect has sullied image of city of flowers

PESHAWAR: A two-member bench of Peshawar High Court (PHC) has held authorities in the K-P capital responsible for transforming the city of flowers into a cesspool of filth and poor sanitation.

Hearing a case against increasing pollution and poor sanitation filed by Hamid Khan, a two-judge bench observed on Thursday that the provincial capital was turned into a ‘God forsaken city’ due to dereliction of duties by the authorities.

“If they [authorities] continue to drag their feet and fail to perform then we have to take some punitive action and send them packing,” said Justice Qaiser Rasheed, the head of the bench.

Counsels for Water and Sanitation Services Peshawar (WSSP), Cantonment Board Peshawar (CBP) Transport Department, district government as well as the Environment Protection Agency director general Dr Muhammad Bashir Khan appeared before the bench.



When the hearing commenced on the petition, the EPA’s DG informed the court that solid waste was still being burnt in the open air despite the court’s clear directions.

Justice Rasheed asked the CBP executive officer to explain why burning of waste was not stopped. The CBP official replied that a contractor, who was tasked to dispose of the waste, was burning it. He said notices had been served on him.

The judge asked as to why the CBP was not cancelling the agreement with the contractor who was causing problems to the residents.

In response to the WSSP comments in which it termed the petition as frivolous and fictitious, the bench observed that it was not the proper reply to a court notice.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 30^th, 2016.