- Murad Saeed says govt wants bill approved to get foreign funding
- Says new bill is redundant as we already have Climate Change Policy 2012
- Takes government to task on its progress on deforestation, irrigation and other sectors
- Says the issue is implementation, not a lack of legislation
The Pakistan Climate Change Bill 2016 has met a deadlock as member of National Assembly’s Standing Committee Murad Saeed showed his reservation on the draft of the bill on Tuesday.
The meeting of National Assembly’s Standing Committee was held at Parliament House to finalize the draft.
The federal cabinet approved the bill on 2 November. Federal Minister for Climate Change Zahid Hamid said at that time that the bill ‘would be tabled in the upcoming session of Parliament’, which is scheduled from today (Wednesday).
Member National Assembly Murad Saeed, while talking to Pakistan Today, said that he raised various points regarding the said bill but Minister Climate Change Zahid Hamid could not satisfy him with his answers. Murad Saeed was of the view that as Pakistan already had a policy in the form of Climate Change Policy 2012 to tackle any climate change issues, there was no need to propose any other bill.
“After the 18th amendment it was provinces’ responsibility to implement the Climate Change Policy 2012. I asked the minister what implementations were made by provinces, but instead of answering me he emphasized on approval of the draft of the new bill,” Murad Said. He also asked what the government had done so far regarding deforestation, irrigation and other sectors which were mentioned in the 2012 Policy.
Murad alleges that the government wants to get this bill approved as it is conditional with international funds that the government will receive after its approval.
Murad was of the view that the policy on climate change was a good one but asked the minister who will ensure its implementation, to which Zahid Hamid responded that its implementation was explained in section 8 of the bill.
The minister didn’t respond to the attempts to contact him.
The meeting was attended by: MNAs Malik Ihtebar Khan, Salman Hanif, Ms Shahnaz Saleem, Ms Maiza Hameed, Murad Saeed, Ms Mussarat Ahmed Zeb, Abdul Qahar Khan Wadan, Ms Naeema Kishwer Khan and Minister for Climate Change Zahid Hamid (ex-officio member).