PHC orders removal of cellphone towers from vicinity of schools, hospitals

A bench of the Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Thursday directed the authorities concerned to remove mobile towers set up near educational institutions and health facilities.

The court bench, comprising on Justice Qaiser Rasheed Khan and Justice Abdul Shakoor Khan heard the case against mobile phone base transceiver stations (BTS), commonly called mobile phone towers, set up near educational institutions and hospitals.

According to details, a writ petition was filed by a citizen Mohammad Naeem who has claimed that setting up of BTS has adverse effects on the human health. The counsel of the petitioner claimed that these towers were posing health hazards as these emitted microwaves at frequency of 1,900 MHz (megahertz), which affected every biological organism within one square kilometre.

Furthermore, the counsel claimed that different researches on the subject showed that there might be several health hazards of microwaves emanating from BTS, including headache, cardiovascular stress, memory loss, miscarriages, cancer, disturbance of the nervous system, etc.

Justice Qaiser Rasheed earlier remarked that the radiations emitting from the cellular phone towers cause life threatening diseases adding that nothing is precious than human lives.

The representatives of the cellular network companies and officials of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Environmental Protection Agency were present during the court hearing.

The officials assured the Peshawar high court (PHC) that a list of the cellular towers near the schools and hospitals will be prepared for removal and submitted to the court soon.

In an earlier hearing the court had sought a detailed report from the KP Environmental Protection Agency to submit a detailed report over the matter and also inform the Peshawar high court (PHC) about the adverse effects of the said BTS on human health. The hearing in the case was adjourned till February 22. The mobile phone towers being seen on rooftops of plazas and at other places across the country.