Pakistan

‘Housing projects violating environment laws to face action’

State minister on climate change says they will back EPA

APP December 28, 2019

Climate Change Minister Zartaj Gul. PHOTO: EXPRESS/FILE

ISLAMABAD: Minister of State for Climate Change Zartaj Gul Wazir on Friday said that the Ministry of Climate Change (MoCC) will take all such housing societies to task who are violating environmental laws and occupying green belts in the federal capital. Moreover, the ministry will support the environment body of the federal capital.

In a talk, she said that while the layout plans of most of the housing societies in the city had been approved by the civic body, the Capital Development Authority (CDA), they were using green belts and parks for commercial purposes.

The societies, she said, had managed to obtain no-objection certificates (NOC) by declaring these areas as parks and green belts in their environmental impact assessment reports.

However, if the housing societies’ were found to be violating the law, the government will take strict action, including cancellation of NOCs.

The Pakistan Environmental Protection Agency (Pak-EPA), she said, was actively holding public hearings of all development projects in the city, including housing societies. However, Wazir conceded that the ministry will further strengthen and empower the body to take stringent action against violators.

“EPA is doing a commendable job with a limited workforce and resources, while the ministry is seriously working to scale up EPA’s structure for better environment conservation and monitoring,” she said.

The state minister continued that Prime Minister Imran Khan had removed a cap on the construction of high-rise buildings in the federal capital to would help promote the construction of skyscrapers. Moreover, she hoped that the move will help save the green belts from destruction by horizontal housing projects and preserve foliage cover in the city.

Wazir said that Pakistan is a signatory to the United Nation’s (UN) Minamata Convention on Mercury to curb the use of this carcinogen.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 28^th, 2019.