Green police: Punjab breaks the mold

Every province in Pakistan possesses a nearly complete set of environmental laws, rules and regulations. However, their enforcement is largely absent. The primary reason cited by each province is typically the lack of a robust enforcement mechanism. Now, Punjab stands alone as the province that cannot offer this excuse.

It has recently established its Environment Protection Squad, a team of uniformed personnel authorised to inspect every entity and individual within Punjab to ensure compliance with environmental laws. If significant violations are identified, this squad can impose immediate penalties and initiate legal proceedings against the offenders.

It's highly unlikely that someone without a technical background, whether from the ruling political party or the bureaucracy, could have achieved this. These individuals often oversimplify technical issues for the sake of impactful rhetoric. Bureaucrats typically don't stay in a single department long enough to drive significant technical development, and politicians at the top, while desiring results, primarily focus on figures to satisfy superiors and critics.

Therefore, it's a real mystery for those unfamiliar with environmental science to figure out who in Punjab took such a technical initiative, which has now finalised the environmental law enforcement system.

Let's unravel the mystery and give credit where it's due for this remarkable achievement. It's a step long yearned for, one that eluded all provinces, including the former green leadership of Punjab, who hesitated due to the uncertain outcome of this unprecedented undertaking. But this time, the driving force behind it all was the provincial Environment Minister of Punjab Marriyum Aurangzeb.

Interestingly, before entering politics, she was a vibrant member of Karachi's environmental civil society. She actively championed environmental awareness in Karachi, even organising a major Earth Hour event at Mazare Quaid-e-Azam. Soon after entering politics, she became closely associated with Maryam Nawaz Sharif, often engaging in political sparring with opponents, and her involvement in environmental activities seemed to wane.

Those who had known her professionally anticipated significant achievements in her new role. However, many were hesitant to voice high expectations openly, perhaps fearing she might prioritise defending the Chief Minister, as she had done previously. Yet, despite supporting her political leader, she also dedicated herself to her Ministry. This resulted in several noteworthy initiatives, including the green squad.

Another contributing factor could be the current political landscape, where the same party holds power both at the federal and provincial levels. While the 18th Constitutional Amendment has decentralised power, this perception of unified governance can still facilitate action at all levels, especially when members of the same family lead both administrations. Nevertheless, it would be unfair to overlook the Chief Minister of Punjab's role, as she has shown the courage to support every initiative that serves the greater public good.

Alright, after all that sweetness, let's switch gears and talk about some of the less pleasant aspects. For starters, there appears to be a significant amount of disorganisation within the functional levels of this new squad. It gives the impression that instead of focusing on actual performance, their primary concern is with appearances, given the abundance of fancy uniforms and gear, along with a long list of sub-departments that make it seem like they're operating with a highly advanced system.

Consider the separate squads designated to monitor and control different types of pollution. What happens if the squad authorised to control plastic pollution observes industrial emissions exceeding the permissible limits? Will they intervene in another squad's area of responsibility, or will they simply call the relevant team to handle the situation?

Another key issue is that no rules or regulations defining the roles and responsibilities of each squad have been officially announced or made public. Their primary function is to safeguard public health by controlling pollution. However, if the public doesn't understand how these squads operate, their presence will be ineffective until these rules are communicated.

Furthermore, what happens if people witness environmental violations? Are there procedures in place to ensure the anonymity of complainants when investigating such incidents? If these standard operating procedures (SoPs) haven't been established yet, the entire green squad force will essentially just patrol the streets as a symbolic gesture — a "green flag march" intended to reassure people that their environment is being protected.

While these are minor issues, they clearly persist due to the sluggish bureaucracy within our government sector. A file crawls through numerous levels of authority before finally reaching approval. At each step, from Section Officer to Special Secretary, the same phrase — "the above paragraph may be approved" — simply travels along with it until it reaches its final destination.

Interestingly, the highly qualified individuals at each level, mostly from the civil services, earn a substantial salary to essentially endorse these approval requests, known as 'note-sheets' in government parlance. So, how long will it take for the higher-ups to approve taking action against someone caught under this new enforcement system?

However, we must commend the entire environment department of Punjab. They have realised a long-held dream for those who have been advocating for it for the past 25 years — ever since the formal establishment of the government environment sector in Pakistan — by creating a green police force to enforce environmental laws.

Previously, this task fell to our widely renowned local police. Given their notorious ability to extract profit from even the most worthless items, it's perhaps no surprise that environmental oversight wasn't spared their unique methods of handling violations, the details of which need not be elaborated here.