IHC for implementation of environmental laws

CJ Minallah seeks reports from govt, CDA within three weeks

ISLAMABAD:

The high court has asked the Prime Minister’s Special Assistant for Climate Change Amin Aslam if the environmental laws could not be implemented in an area as small as Islamabad.

A single-member bench of Islamabad High Court (IHC) comprising Chief Justice Athar Minallah presided over the case related to environmental pollution in the federal capital on Saturday.

The court summoned reports from the federal government as well as the Capital Development Authority (CDA) within three weeks.

The Special Assistant and CDA Chairperson Amir Ali appeared before the court.

While addressing Aslam, the chief justice said that the court had many expectations from him and it has always supported the initiatives taken by him. However, the court stated that the entire National Park has been destroyed and the environment was incurred irreparable damage.

“It is not your fault; it has been ongoing for the past 70 years,” the court said to Aslam. CJ Minallah remarked that after the 18th amendment, the jurisdiction of the regulator was not beyond 1, 400 square miles area of Islamabad.

“Whatever case the court hears, it seems that there is no writ of the government even in the given jurisdictions,” the bench remarked.

"What can be done to make the law pertaining to the elimination of environmental pollution effective,” he asked.

Pointing the assistant, the court inquired if the environmental laws couldn’t be implemented in the area as small as Islamabad. The chief justice reiterated that there was no law for the powerful in the country.

The court summoned a report from the CDA and directed to implement orders for seeking approval of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) before the construction of new projects in Islamabad. The hearing was adjourned for three weeks.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 23^rd, 2020.