Factory owners don't care about 'Toothless SEPA' -- Karachi Stock Exchange

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Date Posted: 00:57:39 12/01/13 Sun
Author: Junaid Khan
Subject: Factory owners don't care about 'Toothless SEPA'

Most factory-owners who violated laws made for the protection of environment, don't care about the toothless Sindh Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) as this state-run-institution has no separate force and specific powers to implement official laws, rules and regulations, it was learnt on Tuesday. A majority of factories running in industrial areas of the metropolis are the biggest violators of environment laws, rules and regulations, but the SEPA which was to be more powerful after the 18th amendment is still toothless. After the 18th amendment approved by Parliament of Pakistan on April 2010, some 18 federal ministries including ministry of Environment were devolved to the provinces. With this step, the SEPA was expected to be more powerful which it made but only administratively and it could not gain the powers of arresting violators. Earlier, SEPA was working under the umbrella of the federal government. Although, the SEPA has become more antonymous administratively it was not able to get a separate force and powers to make this institution more powerful and violators could feel fear that if they would not follow environmental laws strictly, they would be punished severely. For instance: There was a case of Dadex factory, dumping site in Gadap Town which became the reason of cancer causing chemicals (Chrysotile asbestos) that annually take 100,000 lives at the global level resulting in its ban in 52 countries of the world. This has been revealed in a report of the Commission formed by the Supreme Court of Pakistan on the petition of a citizen, Syed Haroon, whose brother, an employee of Dadex Eternet Limited, died of cancer allegedly due to asbestos poisoning. All forms of asbestos including Chrysotile are classified as known human carcinogens by the International Agency for Research on Cancer and the International Programme of Chemical Safety (jointly run by the United Nations Environment Programme, International Labour Organisation and World Health Organisation). On the contrary, the Government of Pakistan is least bothered about the safety of its citizens. A study commissioned on the directives of Supreme Court found that the populations residing in Gadap Town and nearby areas such as Naya Nazimabad, a newly developing mega residential and commercial project are prone to cancer-like diseases through asbestos, a chemical that can affect the population in the neighbourhood as it is air-borne. Incidentally, Naya Nazimabad scheme (owned by capital market tycoons Arif Habib, Aqeel Karim Dhedhi, Haji Abdul Ghani and Shunaid Qureshi) has recently been developed to the dumping site raising safety concerns for those settled in this newly established mega project. The environmental study was initiated on the petition of the brother of Syed Farid Ahmed, an engineer at DadexEternet Limited, who died of cancer in 2006. The deceased's brother filed the criminal complaint against the factory saying that the cancer was caused by the polluted environment of the industrial unit. These apprehensions have now been endorsed by the commission report that said that the Chrysotile asbestos is an essential component of the manufacturing process/product produced by the Dadex Eternet factory.

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