Senate Body On Climate Change Falls Short Of Quorum; Meeting Deferred

Senate Standing Committee on Climate Change meeting deferred due to short of quorum, however State Minister for Climate Change Zartaj Gul was present along with her ministry's team.

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 16th Nov, 2018 ) :Senate Standing Committee on Climate Change meeting deferred due to short of quorum, however State Minister for Climate Change Zartaj Gul was present along with her ministry's team.

The committee's meeting was scheduled to be held with Senator Sitara Ayaz in the chair whereas the members were absent while Senator Sherry Rehman requested the chairperson to ensure completion of the quorum or postpone the meeting for the next week. Senator Sitara Ayaz postponed the committee meeting.

The committee meeting have to focus on the cleaning of natural drains, disposing and dumping of hospital wastes and analysis of issues of water and air pollution.

State Minister for Climate Change Zartaj Gul said, "I reached in time for the meeting with ministry officials' team to address the queries of the committee members over the agenda. The committee lacked quorum and now it's up to the committee to continue the its business in the way they like suitable." Talking to media persons, the state minister said that after the 18th amendment environment's subject has been devolved to the provinces, however, the Ministry of Climate Change was playing a lead role in focusing on smog. She said the provinces would have to improve functioning of their environment protection departments along with new equipment and technology for air quality monitoring.

She further said that Pakistan Environment Protection Agency (PAK-EPA) was fully operational and dynamically working in the Federal capital hence, regularly monitoring air quality, issuing directives as per requirement and taking action against violators.

"We need to take up the issue of trans-border pollution with India as we talk on Kashmir, water and peace there should be talks on climate change mitigation," she maintained.

Replying to another query, she said Karachi was already among the 10 filthiest cities in the world however the Sindh government needs to address the issue as the Ministry of Climate Change merely serves as a focal point for assistance.

"Pakistan placed at seven number among the most vulnerable countries to climate change at World Map of the Global Climate Risk Index 1997,2016 by German watch which is based on past 20 years data. The nation should embrace a congratulation that in 2017-18 Pakistan was not among the top most polluted countries.

The risk has been mitigated due to the billion tree plantation in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa which had its impact across the country. However, the observations were made in the light of frequent heat wave, super floods and other calamities that occurred frequently in the past. The situation in the past two years was different so the initiatives taken had proved to be propitious," she remarked.