Daily Times

LAHORE: Due to insufficient staff and inactive depreciated equipment at the Central Laboratory of Environment Protection Department (EPD) Lahore, the Chief Minister Inspection Team (CMIT) has recommended to redefine the responsibility of Monitoring Lab & Implementation (MLI) Director Tauqir Qureshi by appointing a dedicated director for proper utilisation of EPD labs.

CMIT has also recommended to take actions against the MLI director as per PEEDA Act 2006 but the competent authorities were reluctant to take any action against the officer.

The highly expensive equipment at the Central Lab of Environment Protection Agency (EPA) was kept in boxes and was not being used. EPD Punjab had hired some technical staff in Central Lab, Lahore but no measures were taken to hire additional technical staff against the vacant positions either in district filed offices or regional labs.

According to CMIT report, after a complaint about an industrial unit at Quaid-e-Azam Industrial Estate (QIE), it was to be assessed environmentally to examine if the unit was producing environment pollution/effluents beyond permissible limits or if the unit was violating any environmental laws, by laws or rules or any action which had been taken by the authorities to curtail pollution.

According to report, in 2015 QIE and EPA had served a number of notices to the said industrial unit and the said unit had given an undertaking to EPA that the wet scrubber had been installed on their boiler and there would be no air pollution from the factory but in 2016 the QIE management again raised the question of environmental violation of said unit and once again the said unit agreed with the issue and wrote that the problem with their wet scrubber was fixed.

According to the report, the Planning & Control (P&C) director held a personal hearing against the said unit but surprisingly before the final hearing on September 14, 2017, the unit was visited by the EPA laboratory team on August 17, 2017 and recorded no environmental violation prior the personal hearing. In this regard the team had decided to inquire the EPA central lab to understand the functionality of lab and to verify the performance of major lab equipment.

The report says, “The central lab has six air pointers which are capable of analysing community/ambient air. They are generally fixed on loaders to move them from point to point, as per complaint or general checking for community air quality. One air pointer is fixed without loader at EPA head office whereas the second one used to monitor air quality at QIE fire station. The third one is stored in a room at EPA office and remaining three air pointers were still in the boxes in Central Lab of EPA.”

Furthermore according to the report, “The Atomic Absorption Spectrometre is bit older version of spectrometer and comparatively low cost in operation but it turns expensive in analysing heavy metals of waste water because it analysis each metal one by one. It is sitting idle because new version is available. The Horiba PG-350 Stack Emission Analyser is the equipment to measures the quality of burnt material in terms of foul gases directly from chimney. This expensive and sophisticated equipment was purchased in June, 2015 and it was laying the boxes at the central Lab of EPA.”

According to the recommendations of CMIT’s report, “The newly procured lab equipment was kept in boxes and newly purchased six air pointers are placed in the Central Lab. EPD Punjab secretary should be directed to proceed against MLI Director Tauqir Qureshi under PEEDA Act, 2006, Section 3 to fix proportional responsibility and initiate proceeding as per PEEDA Act, Section 5. Currently, the MLI director is overseeing the procurement of lab equipment, procurement of disposable/chemical, hiring of lab staff and certification of private labs. In addition, the MLI director is also a member of Committee of Directors for issuing of NOCs/Environmental Approval of new industrial unit and is also focal person of restructuring of EPA, Punjab. It is recommended to redefine the responsibility of Tauqir Qureshi by appointing a dedicated director for proper utilisation of EPD labs.”

According to sources, the MLI director was responsible for upgrading and managing the matters regarding EPA laboratories. Qureshi holds a foreign degree in civil engineering but was hired through the Punjab Public Service Commission in 1998 by claiming a qualification in environmental science. He was also suspended for a year when a former secretary termed Qureshi’s qualification irrelevant to the post. He had been a favorite of the EPD’s former secretary Iqbal Chauhan and the EPA’s former director general Dr Javed Iqbal and was given key responsibilities despite strong recommendations for his demotion from the Public Prosecution Department in an inquiry conducted four years ago.

Published in Daily Times, July 2^nd 2018.