Читать книгу Development of Environmental Laws and Jurisprudence in Pakistan - Irum Ahsan - Страница 5

The Ministry of Environment was established in Pakistan in 1975 as a follow-up to the Stockholm Declaration of 1972. Under the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, 1973, both the federal and provincial legislatures had the power to make laws on the environment until 2010.¹ The ministry proposed and drafted the first consolidated environmental law, the Pakistan Environmental Protection Ordinance, 1983 (PEPO). As federal legislation, the main objective of PEPO was to establish institutions, i.e., the Pakistan Environmental Protection Council (PEPC), headed by the President of Pakistan, as the supreme environmental policy-making body in the country; the Pakistan Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) at the federal level; and four environmental protection agencies at the provincial level to administer and implement the provisions of PEPO. PEPO only provided an institutional structure for enforcement and the protection of the environment, without comprehensive provisions for regulation of land use; air, water, or noise pollution; marine pollution; biodiversity; or hazardous substances or activities.

In 1992, Pakistan participated in the Earth Summit and became a party to various international conventions. This accelerated the process of environmental lawmaking in the country. In the same year, Pakistan prepared the National Conservation Strategy (NCS). The NCS provided a broad framework for addressing environmental concerns in the country. In 1993, the first National Environmental Quality Standards (NEQS) were notified under PEPO, providing standards for industrial and municipal effluent and air emissions, including 32 liquid and 16 gaseous parameters.

The Pakistan Environmental Protection Act, 1997 (PEPA) replaced the earlier legislation, PEPO, in an effort to bridge gaps in the law.

After the 18th Amendment, Punjab adopted the Punjab Environmental Protection (Amendment) Act, 2012 (Punjab Act)² with minor changes, while Balochistan passed the Balochistan Environmental Protection Act, 2012 (Balochistan Act).³ The Balochistan Act has made some significant additions to PEPA, while Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) and Sindh are in the process of drafting new provincial laws for the environment. Until the promulgation of the provincial environmental laws in KPK and Sindh, the original structure provided under PEPA, detailed below, shall continue. As the 18th amendment does not provide any specific timelines and cutoff dates for the transition, the promulgation of provincial laws will be left to the initiative of each provincial assembly.

In 2011, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) launched a project in Pakistan called “Building Capacity for Environmental Prosecution, Adjudication, Dispute Resolution, Compliance, and Enforcement in Asia.” After meeting with stakeholders, ADB held an environment conference in March 2012 for the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) with support from the Committee for Enhancing Environmental Justice (CEEJ)—a committee of High Court and Supreme Court judges—and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). The conference was a major success, and the judiciary took many concrete decisions, which are described in detail in this publication.