PHOTO: FILE
The panel further recommended making the parliament plastic-free.
This was suggested in a meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on Climate Change which met at the Parliament House on Wednesday with Awami National Party (ANP) Senator Sitara Ayaz in the chair.
The committee noted that the animals and birds at the Margharzar Zoo were in poor shape. The committee further stated that the staff appointed at the zoo lacked professional training. Hence, they are unable to properly look after or care for the animals there.
The panel recommended taking the zoo from the Capital Development Authority (CDA) and giving its control to the Ministry of Climate Change.
Referring to the ongoing tree plantation drives across the country, Senator Ayaz said that trees can play a key role in limiting the impacts of climate change.
“We must focus on planting more and more trees,” she said but added that any plantation drive started should be reasonably monitored.
“Those trees should be planted which are environment-friendly,” she suggested.
The standing committee stressed that it was imperative to take steps which discourage the rampant use of plastics.
In this regard, Senator Ayaz suggested that the committee should be the one taking the first steps in this regard and directed that from the next meeting of the committee onwards, water should be provided to parliamentarians in glass bottles instead of plastic bottles.
The committee also strongly recommended making the Parliament House plastic-free.
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Senator Samina Saeed said that large exhaust fans have been installed in shopping malls which suck out smoke from these mega structures and pollute the clean air of the city. She further said that these exhaust systems work in an unscientific way and pollute the environment apart from violating environmental laws.
At this, the committee directed the relevant authorities to take notice of the practice and submit a detailed report on the matter in the next meeting of the committee.
Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed suggested that high-rises should build car parks in their basements.
The Pakistan Environment Protection Agency (Pak-EPA) told the committee that the CDA needs to alter its laws, rules and regulations to ensure that regardless of the height of the building, their car parks are located in the basement.
Regarding employees of the climate change ministry, the committee said that the work done by the ministry and its departments was extremely important, but owing to insufficient staff, its performance had been affected.
Hence steps should be taken immediately to address the staff shortage in the ministry.
The committee decided to review in detail the projects of the ministry which had been approved under the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP).
Published in The Express Tribune, February 21st, 2019.
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