KARACHI, June 6: With the appointment of a new chairperson, the Environmental Protection Tribunal, Karachi, will start formal proceedings of some of the already admitted cases from Saturday after a lapse of over seven months, said an official on Friday.

A retired judge of the Sindh High Court, Shamsuddin Hasbani, assumed the charge of the tribunal as its chairperson on Friday. However, the tribunal, which is empowered to hear cases pertaining to violations of environmental rules from all over the Sindh, still lacks a member (Legal).

The Environmental Protection Tribunal virtually stopped working as the federal government had been unable to fill the vacant post of the tribunal’s chairperson after November 3, 2007 when emergency rule was imposed in the country and the then judges of the high courts were asked to take an oath under the Provisional Constitution Order.

The then chairperson of the EPT and also an SHC judge, Justice Khilji Arif Hussain, did not take the oath under the PCO and had to lose his office in the tribunal as well. Under the rules, the tribunal cannot hear a case formally or make any verdict in the absence of the chairperson.

The tribunal, commissioned to handle cases of environmental degradation and polluters, could now resume its proceedings that had been put on hold for technical reasons, said the official, adding that now cases could be heard frequently, even in the absence of member (legal).

The post of the member legal fell vacant about five months back as the then sitting member was appointed as a district and sessions judge in the central district of Karachi.

The Environmental Protection Tribunal meant for the Sindh-Balochistan region was notified by the Ministry of Law and Justice and Human Rights in October 1999, but was commissioned in Karachi in the first quarter of 2007 with the appointment of a high court judge as the chairperson and nomination of two members -- one technical and the other legal -- as required under the Pakistan Environmental Protection Act, 1997.

In the meantime, however, the government announced the formation of another environmental tribunal for Balochistan, and as such the Karachi-based tribunal is required to handle the cases pertaining only to Sindh.

At present, about a dozen cases are in the process of hearing and all pertained to tanneries of Korangi. These cases, which were submitted about nine months back on the complaint of the Sindh Environmental Protection Agency (Sepa), were heard last time on November 3.

A conservationist said that since there were no obvious impediments in the working of the tribunal, more cases could now be filed by both the provincial environment agency and citizens against the polluters.

Under the rules, cases can be filed on different sorts of pollution, unethical and unsafe activities by industries and transporters, careless dumping of chemicals, pesticides, unscientific disposal of solid waste, hospital and pharmaceutical wastes in Karachi and some other districts of the province.