Daily Times

The members of the Senate Standing Committee on Climate Change on Thursday at the body’s farewell meeting here appreciated the dedication and commitment of the Ministry of Climate Change and Environmental Coordination (MoCC&EC) and its participants for striving towards resolution of environmental conservation challenges.

The Chairperson, Senator Seemee Ezdi while opening the forum with the recitation of the verses of Holy Quran extended her warm gratitude to the member Senators for successfully completing their tenure at the Committee with landmark interventions intended to address challenges pertaining to environment and nature conservation.

The Committee was convened on a one-point agenda moved by Senator Fawzia Arshad on implementation of the guidelines of the National Climate Change Policy 2021.

Senator Ezdi thanked the committee members for supporting the body and making all its field visits a success.

The Committee organized eight field visits in total starting from its maiden visit to Pakistan Environmental Protection Agency (Pak-EPA) office and its smog control center, then to the Islamabad Wildlife Management Board (IWMB)’s Trail-6 Leopard Preserve Zone, fire control room at erstwhile Marghzar Zoo (Margalla Wildlife Rescue Centre), Pakistan Meteorological Department office, Trail-5 visit followed by visits to Shahdarah, Farash Town, and Mangroves Forest, Karachi.

She mentioned the Committee members gave a tough time to the Met Office officials during their briefing through very pertinent questions. Senator Ezdi appreciated the capability of MoCC&EC officials and their successful representation of the country at COP-28 (28th meeting of the Conference of the Parties, Dubai) and lauded Secretary, Ministry Asif Hyder Shah for his efforts in this regard.

Senior Joint Secretary MoCC&EC, Muhammad Farooq while briefing on the agenda item apprised the Committee and the mover that all provincial climate action plans were aligned with the National Climate Change Policy 2021 which was submitted at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and published at the MoCC&EC website.

He added that all multinationals’ investment was being done after consulting this policy which was formulated by all stakeholders’ consultation and the Ministry strictly abides by this policy guidelines. Senator Fawzia Arshad said on the occasion that her concerns were related to the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) that was an autonomous entity neglected in the policy endeavours.

She added that this policy should be clarified either it was enacted while considering Punjab or the federal capital as well. “What has been done for Islamabad alone? We need to highlight policy endeavours for Islamabad specifically as it faced unprecedented urban flooding phenomenon in its history. There 43 slums in its out of which 10 are being regularized that lacked proper amenities of water and sanitation,” she added.

She commended the Ministry officials for their well-written and detailed brief in response to her query.

Secretary MoCC&EC, Asif Hyder Shah told the Committee that the federal capital owing to its small territory was performing better than the provinces in the areas of air pollution index, surface water treatment and others. He added that the Ministry’s nomenclature and location was changed five times that made its restructuring a challenge for him whereas the Ministry had hired climate experts equal to the number of its civil service staff to ensure better and well-planned tasks.

He mentioned that the flagship Living Indus Initiative was going to be awarded the UN’s Award in March 2024.

Commenting on the Capital Development Authority (CDA) and IWMB rift, he said it was a mater of land ownership between the two entities with the Islamabad Zoo management as the bone of contention. “Ministry of Interior has moved a summary to the Cabinet for reclaiming the Zoo, whereas the MoCC&EC is supporting the IWMB as the CDA has already had its hands full due to its multiple operations,” he said.

Shah suggested the Committee to give recommendations to maintain the Zoo’s ownership with the IWMB that will endorse the MoCC&EC stance at the Cabinet forum.

Senator Humayun Mohmand said the ICT should be declared as a province directly governed by the Prime Minister to be treated as separately for better policy implementation. He congratulated the chair and MoCC&EC team for being cooperative and working for solutions to the significant environmental issues of the country.

He added that the political will needed to be strengthened through consensus among the political parties to resolve the environment-related issues. Senator Taj Haider also appreciated the forum for its successful completion of the term and raised concerned related to 2022 flood-affected areas and urged the Secretary to work out federal government’s role in furthering support in the reconstruction process.

Senator Khalida Ateeb said the Climate Committee should be assigned to the officials and senators who have been running this body for a long time to ensure consistency of action. Senators Keshoo Bai and Abida Muhammad Azeem also attended the meeting.