Environment? What environment?
Does anyone even know if an environment ministry exists or not?
The writer is communications officer at Tareen Education Foundation
In the midst of a constant madness that the governance of Pakistan remains in, if not ‘must’ then one ‘should’ wonder how far the environment contributes to the behaviour of its citizens. This mayhem has been confirmed by Julian Assange (thank you, sir) on several occasions and we are not even found in jaw-dropped positions anymore.
Some time ago, I was fortunate enough to be attending a rare event — a workshop on environmental laws and regulations of Pakistan — in Lahore. For the sake of privacy, I am not mentioning names and location but I assure that some of the most renowned and well-read professionals and officers from the development world were present. An ex-minister gave a speech at the end of the workshop bringing to light various challenges we face on a national level and the sheer ignorance of the government where matters of protecting the environment were concerned.
I was sitting next to a lawyer at the time and while I was appreciating the man’s guts to speak about the lazy and corrupt attitude of the government, the lawyer began to express his immense dislike for the man and commented that he was ‘such a stupid guy’. Naturally, it got me confused and later I just regretted bothering to ask the reason for his response because this is what he said: “There are so many representatives of foreign donor agencies sitting here and this schmuck is making us look bad — like we don’t give a damn about the environment.” Well, I certainly had breaking news for him: we don’t.
Pakistan is experiencing environmental damage worth more than $1 million per day as determined by the World Bank in 2010. The representatives of foreign donor agencies were actually the ones who needed to hear about our environmental concerns more than our own citizens. Why? It is because they belong to advanced countries responsible for causing most of the environmental problems over the past 200 years.
Poorer countries (such as Pakistan) bear the brunt of the consequences and are left with monetary aid that is not even utilised for its purpose. These people are the ones who spend millions of dollars to hold international summits every now and then on climate change and they turn out to be nothing more than a series of inconclusive alignments and realignments — mere political disasters. Once again, thanks to Julian Assange, Wikileaks revealed that the world’s top two polluters, none other than the US and China, joined hands in order to stymie every attempt made by European countries to reach any consensus. Developing nations (like Pakistan) are left with no other option but to take the bribe offered and accept whatever vague and impotent agreements they are presented with.
The recent floods (remember?) have left us in havoc worth billions of dollars, the consequences of which we are facing and will continue to face for the next many years and Pakistan is still nowhere close to straightening out its act on the environmental front. In fact, does anyone even know if an environment ministry exists or not? Our government has a department that consists of corrupt and incompetent people. We are understaffed, underfunded and visionless along with a bunch of environmental laws which have not been implemented. The ultimate cause of our escalating problems is the deteriorating environment.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 24th, 2014.
Some time ago, I was fortunate enough to be attending a rare event — a workshop on environmental laws and regulations of Pakistan — in Lahore. For the sake of privacy, I am not mentioning names and location but I assure that some of the most renowned and well-read professionals and officers from the development world were present. An ex-minister gave a speech at the end of the workshop bringing to light various challenges we face on a national level and the sheer ignorance of the government where matters of protecting the environment were concerned.
I was sitting next to a lawyer at the time and while I was appreciating the man’s guts to speak about the lazy and corrupt attitude of the government, the lawyer began to express his immense dislike for the man and commented that he was ‘such a stupid guy’. Naturally, it got me confused and later I just regretted bothering to ask the reason for his response because this is what he said: “There are so many representatives of foreign donor agencies sitting here and this schmuck is making us look bad — like we don’t give a damn about the environment.” Well, I certainly had breaking news for him: we don’t.
Pakistan is experiencing environmental damage worth more than $1 million per day as determined by the World Bank in 2010. The representatives of foreign donor agencies were actually the ones who needed to hear about our environmental concerns more than our own citizens. Why? It is because they belong to advanced countries responsible for causing most of the environmental problems over the past 200 years.
Poorer countries (such as Pakistan) bear the brunt of the consequences and are left with monetary aid that is not even utilised for its purpose. These people are the ones who spend millions of dollars to hold international summits every now and then on climate change and they turn out to be nothing more than a series of inconclusive alignments and realignments — mere political disasters. Once again, thanks to Julian Assange, Wikileaks revealed that the world’s top two polluters, none other than the US and China, joined hands in order to stymie every attempt made by European countries to reach any consensus. Developing nations (like Pakistan) are left with no other option but to take the bribe offered and accept whatever vague and impotent agreements they are presented with.
The recent floods (remember?) have left us in havoc worth billions of dollars, the consequences of which we are facing and will continue to face for the next many years and Pakistan is still nowhere close to straightening out its act on the environmental front. In fact, does anyone even know if an environment ministry exists or not? Our government has a department that consists of corrupt and incompetent people. We are understaffed, underfunded and visionless along with a bunch of environmental laws which have not been implemented. The ultimate cause of our escalating problems is the deteriorating environment.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 24th, 2014.