Environment and politics: Factory owner accuses EPD of extortion

Says his business was only one of over 40 violators.

LAHORE:

Muhammad Ashraf, owner of a re-rolling unit against whom an FIR has been lodged for breaking a seal put on it for exceeding carbon emission limits, says he is being prosecuted because he refused to bribe the EPD officers.

Talking to The Express Tribune, Ashraf, one of the three brothers who own the business in Shadipura, accused the EPD of demanding Rs16,000 to let him run the unit.

Ashraf also alleged discrimination. “There are 46 steel re-rolling units in the area. Why have they singled me out?” he asked. “The rest of the units are emitting as much smoke,” he said.  District Officer (Environment) Tariq Zaman rejected the allegations as baseless. He said no EPD officers had told Ashraf to pay a bribe.

Zaman told The Tribune that the FIR was lodged when the EPD learnt that Ashraf was running the unit after it was sealed by the government. He said Ashraf started running the unit on January 15, two days after it was sealed on January 13. He said the seal placed by the EPD had not been broken. “The boundary walls are low so they didn’t need to break the seal. The workers enter and leave the unit by climbing over the walls,” he said.

Tariq Zaman had moved the application for registration of the FIR on Jan 13. The FIR was registered on January 18. Ashraf later obtained a pre-arrest bail from a court.

Zaman said no action had been taken against other units because cases against them were already pending with the Environment Tribunal as there was no chairman in office.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 31^st, 2012.