Environmental Law in Pakistan - IUCN

With few exceptions, federal statutes governing natural resources delegate rule-making and otherimplementation powers either to provincial governments or to bodies and authorities specificallyestablished for such purposes. Case law makes it clear that delegated authority is not final and canbe reverted to the delegating authority. None of the cases deals specifically with the delegation ofauthority for natural resource management.Even where powers are expressly delegated, gaps in the rules of business on the subject matterjurisdiction of ministries and the functions of their sub-divisions mean that no operational basisexists for integrated natural resource management. A framework for integrated management couldbe created by the Pakistan Environmental Protection Council and the Pakistan EnvironmentalProtection Agency, under a broad interpretation of PEPA.7.2 Natural ResourcesAlthough “ecology” is mentioned in the Concurrent Legislative List, and despite the fact thatPakistan is a Party to all biodiversity-related international agreements, there is no general federallegislation on the conservation, development and sustainable use of natural resources. Rather,federal statutes on the subject regulate prospecting and exploitation of resources to ensure theircontinued availability for future exploitation.In practice, all laws governing natural resources operate as provincial laws. The only exceptions arelaws governing marine fisheries that lie outside Pakistan’s territorial waters, statutes governing theallocation of freshwater resources, and an act that prohibits cutting trees in strategic areas. Asidefrom an ordinance that makes it possible to establish protected areas in the Islamabad CapitalTerritory, there is no federal legislation on protected areas. The IEE/EIA regulations issued underPEPA empower the Federal Agency to designate “environmentally sensitive areas”, with noguidance on how these areas would relate to provincially established protected areas. Anothersignificant omission from existing federal legislation is the absence of provisions enabling citizenparticipation in managing and conserving natural resources.Most federal laws emphasise administrative detail and provide scant substantive direction, failing toprovide either a general or sectoral framework for coordinating sustainable development withsustainable resource exploitation. The limited exception is legislation on marine fisheries. Lawsgoverning closely related resources such as freshwater and fisheries do not provide for integratedmanagement.7.3 Processes and Institutions07Summary andConclusions76EnvironmentalLaw in PakistanFederalFederal statutes governing the processes and institutions that affect natural resources focus onregulating these processes in order to ensure their orderly conduct and achieve commercialobjectives. Laws governing these sectors tend to establish institutions and provide significant detailon how such entities are to be managed, but provide scant substantive content and do not providefor environmental considerations in conducting such activities. For example, the AgriculturalPesticides Ordinance contains no provisions regarding the effects of continuous use of a pesticideover long periods of time, or the regulation of its precipitation in the soil or groundwater. Similarly,the Mines Act covers all aspect of mining operations except for the safe disposal of waste, themitigation of adverse environmental effects of mining and the issue of mine closure.Notable exceptions are laws on export processing zones, electric power generation and merchantshipping. Even so, environmental provisions in the statutes on export processing zones and electric