The government is in the process of finalising an important bill to convert the Pakistan Environment Protection Agency (Pak-EPA) into Islamabad-EPA in order to confine the national body to the federal capital.
The move is likely to endanger the country’s environment as there will be no uniform National Environment Quality Standards (NEQS) once the step is taken. Currently, the Pak-EPA is dependant on the Punjab Environment Tribunal for tackling environmental issues, but after the establishment of the Islamabad-EPA, the government well to establish a separate environmental tribunal for cases related to Islamabad.
EPA was established under section (5) of the Environment Protection Act, 1997 and its basic function is to prepare and revise and establish the National Environment Quality Standards.
Restraining powers of Pak-EPA to the capital city would badly affect the environment of entire country, as the rivers or air do not have any boundaries or are limited to any one province. Consequently, after the removal of coordination among the provinces, a blame game would be start among the federating units for raising water or air pollution in any province.
Director General Pak-EPA, Asif Shujah told Pakistan Today that if there “was no national environment protection body, it will severely affect our international treaties, as well as funding”.
