Environmental Legislation

At independence, Pakistan inherited a number of laws from the colonial period that were converted to environmental provisions. The constitution of 1973 mentions environmental objectives in the preamble, but no specific law was drafted at that time.
In 1983, the Pakistan Environmental Protection Ordinance (PEPO) was passed. This highlighted the need to have a framework of environmental law in Pakistan to address emerging national issues. PEPO established the Pakistan Environmental Protection Council (PEPC) and the Pakistan Environmental Protection Agency, as well as introducing the concept of Environmental Impact Assessments. It is unfortunate that PEPO has remained largely unimplemented. PEPC met in 1993 for the first time and approved National Environmental Quality Standards (NEQS) which later formulated the limits on major pollutants in municipal and industrial liquid effluents, industrial gaseous emissions, motor vehicle exhaust and noise.
The draft Environmental Protection Act, which lapsed in 1996 after failing to be approved in the National Assembly has recently been redrafted and unanimously passed by the Assembly.