Fifth meeting of Punjab Environmental Protection Council held

Lahore: The fifth meeting of the Punjab Environmental Protection Council was held in the Committee Room of the Civil Secretariat under the chairmanship of Provincial Minister for Environmental Protection Muhammad Rizwan.
The chair reviewed introduction of the members of the council and the implementation of the decisions taken in the previous meeting of the council.  Secretary Environmental Protection Syed Mubashir Hussain informed the chair that the previous meeting of the Council was chaired by the Chief Minister of Punjab in which direction was made to fix Punjab Air Quality Standards and guidelines for appointment of consultant.
He informed that it was inevitable to increase the efficiency or strength of the environment department, the department was releasing air quality index on a daily basis on the basis of PM2.5 while there was no Climate Change Institution in Punjab.
Environmentalist Rafi Alam said that annual report on air quality should be prepared and regular TORs should be made, have a ten year old policy.  Provincial Minister for Environmental Protection Muhammad Rizwan directed the environment secretary to approve the sub-committee and meet next week to present the report.  He directed the participants to fix the air quality index keeping in view all the facts while giving priority to the regional formula.  He directed the representative industry to submit a detailed report by zoning all the current and future industries. The provincial minister urged the participants to consider global warming as a major issue and make it mandatory for all concerned secretaries to attend the next meeting so that they can come together and reach a final conclusion. The provincial minister directed the secretary and DG environment, Rules and regulations to be completed without delay as the process of action remains incomplete due to lack of clear rules. The meeting was attended by representatives of P&D, WWF Pakistan, Lahore University, Punjab Green Development, Planning, Fisheries, Irrigation and Environmentalists.