EPD to file reply by May 3

Petitioner prayed the court to declare the permission to import gas from India as illegal.

LAHORE:

The Lahore High Court on Monday issued notice to the Environment Protection Department for May 3 on a petition challenging the import of allegedly substandard carbon dioxide from India.

The petition of Colony Sugar Mills, submitted through its CEO, said the company had a top-of-the-line carbon dioxide production facility in the country.

He said the Ministry of Commerce had allowed Pak Gases (Pvt) to import gas from India last year which was illegal and unconstitutional.

He said the gas was in the negative list of imports from India. The petitioner’s lawyer Shahid Ikram Siddiqi submitted that the ministry’s import permission also violated the Import Policy Order 2013.

He said gas imported from India through Wagah did not meet the requirements of the Pakistan Standards and Quality Control Authority as there was no system to check standards at the Wagah Border. He said this meant that sub-standard and contaminated gas had been imported and supplied to the beverage industry for manufacturing carbonated soft drinks. This, he added, could result in serious health concerns.

The petitioner submitted that gas could not have been fit for human use as ISO tankers are required for its storage and transportation which were not available at the Wagah Border.

He prayed the court to declare the permission to import gas from India as illegal. He asked that the federal government be restrained from giving any such permission in the future. He asked that directions be issued for confiscation of the imported carbon dioxide.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 30^th, 2013.