The Lahore High Court (LHC) allowing a petition for making Environment Protection Council (EPC) functional ordered the Punjab government to notify the council afresh within a month and then hold its statutory meeting.
Justice Shams Mehmood Mirza passed these orders in a judgment issued here on Thursday on a petition filed by Barrister Ahmed Qayyum.
Earlier, the petitioner-counsel submitted that the government revived the EPC two years ago but no meeting of the council was held and it lapsed subsequently.
He submitted that due to non-functioning of the EPC, the environmental pollution was not being controlled. He said citizens were not getting clean drinking water and clean air which are their basic human rights. He said that in the absence of the EPC, challenges to our environment could not be dealt with. He requested the court to issue directions to the government to make the EPC functional.