The applicants including Iftikhar Ahmed, Mohammed Usman and others filed a petition in which they made Ministry of Law and Justice, Ministry of Climate Change and Environment Protection Agency (EPA) as respondents.
The petitioners asserted that thousands of people linked with the industry were now struggling to earn bread for their families due to the ban.
They stated that a number of countries around the world were still using plastic bags. The petitioners maintained that they were ready to make bio-degradable shopping bags but for this purpose, they pleaded, the government should give them appropriate time.
Thousands lose jobs due to ban on plastic bags
They urged the court to revoke government’s decision to ban polythene bags in the federal capital.
Petition dismissed
IHC dismissed the petitions challenging the operation of Capital Development Authority (CDA) for demolishing kiosks in federal capital and declared the move as legal. A division bench comprising Justice Aamer Farooq and Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb announced the judgment which was reserved on identical petitions filed by kiosks owners against the CDA operation.
The court said the operation by the civic body against the kiosks was lawful.
The petitioners pleaded the court that the CDA had issued licenses to kiosks and now it should stop to demolish them.
They prayed the court to declare the operation as illegal and void.
However, the CDA had presented the details of 485 kiosks and master plan of the federal capital during the hearing on subject. The CDA officials brought into the notice of the court that no kiosk owner had met the conditions laid down in the licences issued to them.
Great laws lack implementation
The government has recently taken several specific initiatives such as ban on plastic bags, and the sale of loose and smuggled cigarettes to underage smokers e, and 'no helmet - no fuel’ to motorcyclists' which is an effort to ensure public health and preserve and protect environment, it has yielded some positive results, yet the full implementation is still an elusive dream.
Although the ban on detrimental products and practices remained enforced for a short period by past regimes but were later abandoned due to vested interests.
Businesses urged to find substitutes for plastic bags
The incumbent government, however, seems to be serious in their enforcement for the public health, particularly the youth, besides checking environmental degradation.
The local administrations of twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi needed to revise their execution strategies to achieve complete ban on the prohibited items and acts, through strict implementation of the rules and regulations.
Senior lawyer Hafiz Khurram Khalid, while speaking to the media , said the government had outlawed the sale of loose cigarettes across the country in 2018 keeping in view the move's high success rate in the western countries and some regional states like Nepal.
The consumption of tobacco at public places, sale of cigarettes to the underage people , and the distribution, sale and storage of tobacco products within 50-meter radius of educational institutions were banned under the 'Prohibition of Smoking and Protection of Non-smokers Health Ordinance, 2002, he said. A senior citizen Iqbal Khan, resident of Sector G-8, said shopkeepers in the capital's markets and rural areas were openly violating the law by selling loose cigarettes.
"We are committed to save our future generation from the use of the illicit substance (tobacco) that is playing havoc with the lives of our youth," Deputy Commissioner Islamabad Hamza Shafqaat said while responding to the queries about weak enforcement of the anti-tobacco laws in the federal capital.
He said the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) administration was utilising its all resources to get the law implemented.
Some 40 kiosks had been closed down in the Sector H- 8 in the recent crackdown against violators, he added. Hamza said the administration had stepped up its efforts to sensitize the parents, teachers and citizens to keep the youth at bay from smoking, which was claiming 160, 000 lives every year.
He claimed that the 'No Helmet-No Fuel' initiative had achieved the purpose as around 80 per cent reduction in head injuries involving bikers was witnessed after its strict implementation.
Sindh govt launches drive against use of plastic bags
"Ninety-nine per cent ban on the use of polythene plastic bag is being observed in the markets and Baazars of Islamabad," he asserted when asked about the reported use of the product in the city.
Journalist Umer Khan, however, said the ban on kite flying and sale of fuel to bikers without helmet and the recent one on the use of polythene bags had been meeting some resistance from the public particularly on the outskirts of the cities. Meanwhile, violation of the same initiatives continues unabated in Rawalpindi due to poor enforcement by its local administration.
The ban regarding cigarettes' sale and filling of bike tanks without helmet are being flouted by the public across the city including Saddar, Liaquat Bagh, Peoples Colony and others, while the Rawalpindi administration is mulling to enforce ban on plastic bags in next few days. An official source requesting anonymity said the Rawalpindi administration had been taking action against violators of anti-smoking laws on receiving complaints.
With additional input by APP
Published in The Express Tribune, September 17th, 2019.
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