ISLAMABAD – Recommending that Ministry of Environment should be retained by the federal government, the National Assembly Standing Committee on Environment Monday said that devolution of the ministry to the provinces would make implementation of international treaties in the country difficult.
The standing committee meeting was held with Raja Muhammad Asad MNA in the chair here on Monday. The Ministry of Environment is to be devolved to the provinces in the third phase of the devolution plan under the 18th Amendment. Expressing concerns over the issue, the members of the committee said that Pakistan was a signatory to various international treaties and UN conventions and their implementation was responsibility of the federal government.
They also expressed scepticism that if a treaty after devolution remained unimplemented; there was no way hold the province concerned accountable.
Later, the committee recommended that the federal government should retain the Ministry of Environment. Meanwhile, the committee also expressed concern that hotels and motels were being constructed illegally in national parks and Capital Development Authority (CDA) should take immediate measure to control that the construction.
The Committee also directed the CDA to restrain the allotments in those areas. The committee also directed the CDA to provide the names of persons whom places for hotels or motels had been allotted so far in the public parks. Secretary Environment Khawaja Muhammad Naeem briefed the committee that construction in Zone III of Islamabad was illegal. Upon that member of the committee Syed Tayyab Hussain MNA said that why construction had taken place there, the secretary relied that it was if illegal if it had taken place.
Expressing displeasure, the committee called the Islamabad Capital Territory officials to brief the committee on the issue of illegal construction in its next meeting. The meeting was attended by MNA Anayat Ali, MNA Qudsia Arshad, MNA Nosheen Saeed and MNA Khurshuid Begum.
