Environmental disasters are not new to Pakistan. The Clifton beach in Karachi still reminds beach goers of the Tasman Spirit disaster that happened 15 year ago. Earlier this month, a ship being brought to Gadani shipbreaking yard spilled oil near the coastline wreaking havoc on the marine life, and on those whose livelihoods depend on the sea.
Elsewhere in the country, the industrial heartlands have been spoiling the rivers for long, leading to births of deformed children and what not, whereas Pakistan’s latest fascination with coal will soon ensure further pollution. May be those export dollars the rich will earn will buy back the health of the poor. Clearly, the rich don’t care about the inequality of environmental damages nor does the state.
The unfortunate reality is not only that Pakistan’s state is unable and seems unwilling to protect its citizens from the environmental damages. Equally unfortunate is that environmentalists are still seen as a detrimental to business in this country, whereas globally there is increasing realisation that the two cannot be divorced from each other.
Diagnosis first, treatment later; But so little is the realisation of environmental problem, the assessment studies of the environment departments at provincial government level do not even exist, according to Dr Imran Khalid at the SDPI. Their capacity to monitor and check sources of pollution understand and resolve transboundary issues between provinces and between the states in this region has not even been assessed so that specific solutions could be offered.
In some cases, the employee of the provincial environment agency moonlights as a consultant to the party which needs to get an environment assessment done for a project – a clear conflict of interest. In the case of public hearing say for a project affecting a certain town, the poor are brought from neighbouring towns, paid Rs2000 each, and given a fancy power point presentation in English language and sent home. Public hearing, done!
Some companies, those who aspire to build their own brand name and export to the world, get ISO-14000 certifications to showcase how they have adopted international best practices to become environmentally sustainable. But the people who get to double check – local ISO auditors and provincial environmental agencies – lack both skills and ethics. There have been enough factory disasters that burnt labourers to death; and later investigators found that their international occupational safety certifications were no more than paper work.
Even the SECP – that regulates the relatively big-ticket businesses – has not woken up to the realisation to the importance of environment protection. Its latest Corporate Governance code 2017 for listed companies requires the CEO to place significant issues for the decision of the Board of Directors. These matters include: (a) implementation of environmental, social and governmental and health and safety business practices; and (b) any significant accidents, fatalities, dangerous occurrences and instances of pollution and environmental problems involving the company.
But these are mostly from the lens of CSR than a real strategic importance. The failure of listed companies to give strategic importance to environmental concerns can be gauged by the fact that even ICI Pakistan – that received Best Sustainability Annual Report Award by ICAP and ICMAP last year – did not have an environment committee at the board level. A quick review of leading oil and gas production, refinery, and marketing firms reveals that none of these companies have environment committee at the board level (with at least one independent director) ala Audit Committee, HR committee or Risk Management or Procurement Committee. Are Pakistani boards blind to environmental concerns?
Improved corporate environmental governance is one of the many ways to deal with environmental challenges. Policies and practices to reduce exposure to environmental damage and inefficient use of resources, and to demonstrate to stakeholders about the extent to which has adopted the principles of environmental sustainability; ensuring relatively green supply chain – these are some of the strategic decisions that should be made and reviewed at the board level with at least one non-executive independent director.
These ideas are not new. The world has been talking about it and toying with it since the late 90s. It is Pakistan and Pakistanis that care not about it! Nor is effective corporate environment governance the panacea; but it’s one of the many ways to start, tracking which, and building a discourse around which can help the country get somewhere. Must one wait for a mega environmental disaster to happen before take cross cutting decisions are taken?
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