ISLAMABAD:
Finally the capital’s Environment Tribunal (ET) has gotten its chairperson after a lapse of one and a half year, at least for three months.
Irum Niazi, a Special Court judge, has been given additional charge of the tribunal’s chairperson for three months.
However, legal and technical members of the tribunal have yet to be appointed.
The tribunal has been non-functional since March 5, 2013 with the transfer of former chairman and end of tenures of two legal and technical members.
This shows lack of interest on the part of the government towards protection and control of environmental pollution in the federal capital.
As per the rules, Islamabad High Court (IHC) appoints chairperson of the ET as well as member legal.
The Environment Protection Agency (EPA) and Climate Change Division nominates environment expert as technical member of the tribunal.
The EPA sources told The Express Tribune on Friday that the agency and Climate Change Division had sent three names for the appointment as member technical in June, but the summary was gathering dust in the law ministry.
The sources said that the delay was due to sit-ins taking place at the Constitution Avenue.
Sources in the EPA said that a building had been allotted and a separate office had been established for hearing of environment-related complaints by the tribunal in Sector G-11.
Around 135 lawsuits have been pending since 2013 including a case against Metro Cash and Carry who allegedly did not take EPA approval.
Cases are also pending against around a hundred alleged polluters which are accused of causing pollution in the catchment areas of Rawal Lake.
Quaid-i-Azam University (QAU) is among one of the violators. The university has allegedly been violating EPA rules by discharging untreated water, laboratory effluents and hostel sewage directly poured into the tributaries of Rawal Lake.
There are around nine to 10 re-rolling mills in the industrial area of the federal capital that are accused of polluting environment by discharging toxic emissions from their units. The environment-related cases against these alleged violators could not be pursued for the last two years mainly due to the dormant status of the tribunal.
The environment protection tribunals were formed under Section 20 of the Pakistan Environment Protection Act 1997.
The tribunals have the powers to give directions, act to override other laws and make regulations to mention some.
It particularly deals with violations of Section 11 (National Environment Quality Standards) and 12 (Environment Impact Assessment) of the Environment Protection Act.
These included development activities in all sectors whether industry, residential, commercial, municipal agency, utility service providers, communication and energy etc.
The sources said that non-compliance in these sectors could result in environmental degradation whether they were small or mega development projects.
The sources while giving examples said that some housing societies including Defence Housing Authority (DHA) and a number of multi-storey buildings in the federal capital were constructed in violation of Section 12 of the Act.
EPA Director-General (DG) Dr Muhammad Khurshid said that the regulators issued environment protection orders to the violators for non-compliance of the laws.
He said that since EPA could not impose penalties and punishments, the cases were referred to the tribunals, which then initiated legal proceedings against the violators.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 6th, 2014.
COMMENTS
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ