PHC issues notice to authorities

Rising pollution

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Friday issued a notice to both the provincial and district governments and Environmental Protection Agency in a writ petition filed against increasing pollution in the provincial capital.

A two-member bench comprising of Justice Waqar Ahmad Seth and Justice Syed Afsar Shah put on notice the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government through chief secretary and director general Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), who were directing to explain their position regarding the rise in pollutions in Peshawar.

The court issued the directions in a writ petition filed by Ghulam Shoaib Jally and Hamad Hussain Yousafzai, both Peshawar-based lawyers, seeking directions from the court to give deadline to the government and the concerned agencies to take action on a war footing against all sorts of pollution.

During the hearing, Ghulam Shoaib Jally submitted before the bench that it was revealed recently in the World Health Organisation (WHO) report that Peshawar is the sixth most polluted city out of 1,600 cities in the world.

He said that Peshawar city was polluted since long and different departments had been set up from time to time by the provincial government to tackle it.

He argued that both the federal and provincial governments have spent billions of rupees for the protection of environment and created environmental protection agencies, departments and court and statutes. He said that millions of rupees have also been spent on the publicity campaign by the provincial government, but the issue of pollution was increasing day by day.

The petition requested the high court to direct the government and agencies to take stern action against pollution, provide timeframe in which they would be able to control pollution in Peshawar, provide the details of funds spent on anti-pollution campaigns by the provincial and federal governments and furnish the reasons for non-implementation of pollution control measures.