Rule by word of mouth!

On October 3, the government launched a "Plastic-Free Islamabad" drive. Within days, a campaign against litter had become a campaign against lawful trade. Retailers and consumer goods companies were told to stop selling products packed in polyethylene terephthalate (PET), the clear plastic used for bottled water, soft drinks, juices and cooking oil. The instructions were verbal, attributed to the offices of the Chief Commissioner and the Chairman of the Capital Development Authority (CDA). From October 12, teams began sealing shops. No one has produced a written order, gazette notification or provision of law.

In Pakistan, public officials may do only what the law allows. The CDA Ordinance, 1960 limits the Chairman to duties "assigned to them by or under this Ordinance". It deals with master plans, development schemes, land acquisition, buildings and, where notified, municipal functions. Its commodity-specific control concerns natural resources used as building material. Nothing in it lets the CDA decide which lawful goods may sit on a shop shelf. Even where it permits sealing, it requires a written order and a chance to be heard.

The Islamabad Capital Territory (Administration) Order, 1980, and the notification under it, let the capital's administrator exercise powers that existing laws give a "Provincial Government", subject to federal instructions. That is a power to apply existing laws, not to create new bans. The Ministry of Interior cannot supply authority that Parliament has not given. Ministerial pledges to rid the city of plastic bottles by December 31 are policy announcements, not law.

Islamabad does have a plastics law. The Single-use Plastics (Prohibition) Regulations, 2023 were made by the Pakistan Environmental Protection Agency (Pak-EPA) under the Pakistan Environmental Protection Act, 1997. They name PET in their definition of plastic, then ban six items: polythene bags, straws, plastic crockery, cutlery, food-service ware and stirrers. PET bottles are not on the list. Instead, from July 2028, beverage bottles must contain at least 50 per cent recycled plastic. The choice was deliberate: PET is to be recycled, not banned.

On October 15, a Pak-EPA official told media that the agency is Islamabad's only environmental regulator and that there is no legal basis for removing PET bottles from sale. When the designated regulator says a product is lawful, other offices cannot quietly decide otherwise.

The costs are real. Sealed shops lose daily takings, and their owners have no formal order to challenge. Supply chains are disrupted. In the recycling sector, which depends on the value of used PET, jobs in collection and sorting are at risk.

Business groups have objected. The Overseas Investors Chamber of Commerce and Industry wrote to the Interior Minister seeking withdrawal of the ban. The Collect and Recycle (CoRe) Alliance approached the BOI and the SIFC. The American Business Forum appealed to the Interior Minister. Their message was the same: enforce the 2023 Regulations; do not replace them with an informal ban.

The Constitution is on their side. Article 4 says no action detrimental to a person's life, liberty, body, reputation or property shall be taken except in accordance with law. Article 18 protects lawful trade, subject only to qualifications "prescribed by law", and a verbal instruction prescribes nothing. Article 10A guarantees due process, which at a minimum means notice and a hearing before a livelihood is shut down. Section 24A of the General Clauses Act, 1897 requires officials to act fairly and give reasons for their orders. Sealing a shop without an order denies its owner every one of these protections.

This is not the first time verbal directives have stood in for gazetted rules. Each episode teaches businesses the same lesson: in Pakistan, the rule that matters may not be the one written down. That lesson raises the cost of capital, deters reinvestment and undermines the predictability that investment facilitation bodies exist to promise.

The administration should withdraw the instructions and de-seal affected shops. If PET needs tighter control, Pak-EPA can consult stakeholders and amend the 2023 Regulations through the procedure the law prescribes. Islamabad deserves to be clean. It also deserves to be governed by law.