The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Wednesday appointed former attorney general of Pakistan Makhdoom Ali Khan as amicus curiae to assist the court in a case pertaining to the establishment of two nuclear power plants in Karachi.
Headed by Chief Justice Maqbool Baqar, a division bench extended till December 5 its injunction barring the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) from carrying out work on two nuclear power plants in Karachi.
The court had taken up a petition filed by Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy, Dr Pervaiz Amirali Hoodbhoy and others, who had approached the court challenging Sepa’s environmental impact assessment (EIA) report that accorded its approval to establishment of two nuclear power plants in Karachi.
The counsel for the petitioners had submitted that the twin nuclear reactors would be based on a design known as the ACP-1000. He said these types of reactors were not even operating in China as they only exist on the paper and in computer. This type of rectors will be used for the first time in Karachi.
He said the safety precautions, which were required to be adopted by authorities, were still unclear and uncertain, posing serious threat to health and life of the people of the city.
The counsel submitted that the PAEC had approached the Sepa for its approval on the project. Subsequently, it issued environmental impact assessment (EIA) report on the project while approving it. He argued that the EIA report was issued without complying with provisions of related environment laws as no public hearing was held regarding suitability of the site for the nuclear plants in Karachi.
In response to the court notice, the PAEC’s secretary denied that PAEC had failed to offer and make public credible plan for emergency evacuation of the citizens in case of any nuclear accident stating that setting up an emergency plan and carrying out emergency drills was mandatory requirement set forth by PNRA and the PAEC had fulfilled the requirement. He said extensive studies had been carried out for establishing power plants on the proposed site to ensure that the plant would survive the largest earthquake and tsunami.
He said the PAEC was exempted from having public hearing regarding suitability of the site for the nuclear plants in Karachi under section 12(3) of the EPA 1997.
The foremost reality or let say a fact we need to admit that Pakistan is into nuclear from couple of decades. It is not all a novel situation for Pakistan to go for the construction of nuclear power plants. The construction of power plants is the dual effort made by very responsible nuclear weapon state Pakistan and China. Apart from this, nuclear energy is vastly been used by all state to fulfill the growing energy needs. Nuclear is a reliable, credible and an efficient source of energy. We are not the only one throughout this globe which are going towards nuclear energy. It is a need that Pakistan should follow global energy trends in order to cut down dependency level.
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