News
Sunday, December 15, 2013
Experts, academia urge govt to review environment billStaff Report
KARACHI: Environmental experts, academics and agriculturists advised the provincial government to review the provincial environmental bill by involving all stakeholders for improvement and more acceptability.
They were speaking at the conference, “Civil Society Roundtable: New Environmental Law” held at a local hotel on Saturday. It was organised by the Strengthening Participatory Organisation (SPO).
Sindh Law Minister Dr Sikandar Mandhro, SPO Country Head Nasir Memon, DG EPA Naim Mughal, Chairperson Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum (PFF) Mohammed Ali Shah and Professor Ismail Kumbhar of the Agriculture University, Tando Jam among others spoke on the occasion.
The law minister thanked the audience for giving valuable inputs on the new bill and said that being a civilised society, it was government’s responsibility to make and implement the laws. The law, he said, does not only benefit the government but also people and the environment.
Mandhro said laws should be designed with participation of individuals related to the field as they have the relevant expertise. He assured that the government wasn’t in a hurry and will present the bill after getting suggestions from all the stakeholders concerned.
Earlier, DG PA Naeem Mughal presented the salient features of the bill, which he claimed to have designed after frequent meetings with the stakeholders. In light of the 18th amendment, he said, the Environment Department now had become a provincial subject. Chairperson PFF raised relevant points, saying the environmental policy always needs further review because of gaps and loopholes.
Shah said there was no clear definition of Indus Delta and marine ecology in the draft; hence it could not protect the delta and avoid marine ecology. EIA, he said, had nothing and was a vague term used to defend the corporate sector. Besides, he termed the construction of a nuclear power plant along Karachi’s coast a “terrible decision” taken by the government.
Nasir Memon of the SPO also spoke and shared the objectives of dialogue and invited participants to give their valuable input, focusing on the issues related to environment in urban and rural areas. He gave a list of environmental pollution issues, ie, air pollution, contamination of foodstuff and others, which were related to human life.
Rasool Bakhsh Mahar from Mehran University of Engineering and Technology (MUET), Altaf Shaikh of the WWF, Elahi Bakhsh of SPO, Advocate Qazi Ali Athar, Nasir Pahnwar of Friends of Indus, Ali Murtaza Dharejo of Zoological Department Sindh University and others pointed out international conventions such as Ramsar, wetlands and other issues, which need to be taken under consideration while designing this important law.
Professor Ismail Kumbhar of the Agriculture University Tando Jam said the green revolution had brought the destruction ( enough to learn a lesson and make better legislation.
Tahir Hassan of Shirkatgah said that as a nation, Pakistanis do not realise the amount of pollution they cause. He named a number of projects to illustrate his point.
Hassan also emphasised on gender bias in making legislation, saying that laws were “gender-blind” despite the fact that women face the major workload: they collect fodder, firewood and water. Women, he said, deserved better and urged local bodies to take such issues into consideration.
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk