KARACHI, Dec 12: The Sindh Environmental Protection Agency (Sepa) has issued an NOC to the Oil and Gas Development Company to carry out work in an ecologically sensitive and protected area without following the prescribed rules, it is learnt. Sources said the OGDC planned to carry out 2-D seismic activities in Thano Beg Block, which overlaps the protected area, the Khirthar National Park, in Jamshoro district.

Under the relevant rules, Sepa has to organise a public hearing regarding any project being undertaken in a protected area and set up a committee of experts, which reviews the project qualitatively and decides whether the NOC is to be issued.

The sources said that under the normal procedure, after the committee was formed its members discussed the issue at a few meetings and the committee members were also taken on site visits to see the ground conditions and, if they wanted, to meet local communities before reaching at a decision.

The sources said that in the OGDC’s case this procedure was not followed, which was a violation of Rule 11 of the Pakistan Environmental Protection Agency Review of the Initial Environmental Examination and Environmental Impact Assessment Regulations 2000.

The sources said Sepa had for a long time been suffering from a shortage of technically-qualified staff as almost all technical people had left their posts for a variety of reasons — some have resigned, some are on long leave, while many others just do not come to work — which has created a technical vacuum in Sepa, the executive arm of the government through which it is supposed to implement the environmental protection laws, seriously affecting its working.

Explaining the shortage of technical people, the sources said Sepa director-general Abdul Malik Ghauri had a degree in the English language and did not have any environment-related educational background though the rules demand that he should either have a doctorate or a postgraduate degree in environmental engineering and several years of experience in the relevant field.

Similarly, director Kiran Nauman is a former schoolteacher and was inducted into the Sindh Employees Social Security Institution (Sessi) during the ban on employment period in BPS 18 and then within a short time she was brought in, on deputation, to Sepa in BPS 19. She also does not have the required education qualifications — a postgraduate degree in environmental engineering and necessary experience in the relevant field.

They said that the third relevant person for reviewing the environmental-impact assessment process was the deputy director (EIA) and the person holding that charge, Naeem Mughal, technically qualified for a change, is on medical leave. The post is currently held by an intern employee, which in itself is an illegality.

The sources said that in the absence of qualified people it had become even more important that a committee of experts, as required by the rules, was formed to evaluate the project and to take a decision. But this route was not taken and the decision to issue the NOC was taken by the non-technical director-general in haste, within a few days after the public hearing was held.

The sources said that some time ago when a multinational oil exploration company was granted such a permission for the area encompassing the Khirthar National Park, a long exercise of EIA etc was undertaken before the Sepa permission. However, this time no such procedure was adopted and the Sepa DG issued the NOC to the OGDC to begin work.

One of the largest national parks in the country, the KNP is ecologically a highly-sensitive area and houses many rare and endangered species of fauna and flora. It was the first national park of the country to be listed in the UN’s list of protected areas. It was established to provide protection to the rare species of Sindh Ibex and Urial.