ISLAMABAD, Feb 16: The federal environment ministry is in a fix over the setting up of environment impact assessment (EIA) commission, with its federal minister supporting the idea and the bureaucracy opposing the same, Dawn has learnt.

In a recently-held meeting, the federal minister for environment, Maj (retired) Tahir Iqbal, supported the suggestion, but the bureaucracy of the ministry opposed it, it would curtail of their powers.

The EIA has been declared mandatory under a number of treaties and laws at both international and national level, but it remained ineffective in the country.

The EIA review process prior to issuance of an NOC for a development project is extremely poor in the country and none of the environment protection agencies have capacity to monitor its compliance.

The assessment of adverse environmental impacts of any development project is a legal requirement under section 12 of Pakistan Environmental Protection Act of 1997. It also constitutes core part of the recently-announced national environment policy.

The section 12 of the act has become operational under Pakistan Environment Protection Agency Review of (EIA) Regulations, 2000. The Executive Committee of National Economic Council, in its meeting held on July 24, 2004, had decided that “in case of development projects having environmental implication, an EIA report should invariably be submitted along with the project document at the time of getting approval.”

To incorporate the EIA in project proposal development stage, a provision (Part-D) has been made in the Planning Commission’s PC-1 titled “Environmental Impact Assessment”.

Internationally, the integration of environment and development has been agreed upon by the world community at United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in June 1992 at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

The Pakistan Environment Protection Agency (Pepa), with the approval of the federal government, has also notified the rules for EIA, namely Pakistan Environmental Protection Agency Review of Initial Environmental Examination and Environmental Impact Assessment Regulations, 2000 vide S.R.O. 339 (1)/2001.

Therefore, Section 12 of the environment protection act, 1997, is now in force in the country. Pepa has also issued general and sectoral guidelines for EIA as Pakistan Environmental Assessment Procedures in 1997.

The Planning and Development Division (P&D) at the federal level and its corresponding provincial departments have established separate sections for environmental screening of the project proposals.

The environment section at Planning and Development Division is mandated to formulate and review policies related to environment and Medium Term Development Frameworks, and to conduct mid-term reviews. The environment section is also mandated to hold annual planning, training, research and project screening exercises.

Thus, the development of policy, and institutional, legal and regulatory frameworks have provided sufficient support for the EIA system in the country. But despite all these measures, the EIA system is still not very effective in Pakistan, particularly in public sector development projects.

This is because of lack of capacity and poor coordination on part of the government institutions. Most of the government departments are still not aware of the legal requirement that development projects should meet under an EIA process.

The result is that government departments, such as development authorities and utilities, process and support the projects without checking for compliance with the EIA regulations.

There is a general view held by the planning and development departments that EIA is anti-development and incorporation the cost of environmental protection in the project cost makes it a hindrance in achieving the targets of economic growth set by the government.

Although, provincial planning and research departments have environment sections, these are not very effective as far as environmental screening of the projects is concerned.