ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court expressed concern that the federal and provincial governments have not allocated any budget for the climate fund, and they have no clear effective strategies to deal with the challenges of climate change.

A three-judge bench, headed by Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah and comprising Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar and Justice Shahid Bilal Hassan, on Friday, released its order on its 1st July 2024 proceedings on the petition of the Public Interest Law Association of Pakistan.

The court noted that climate change is a serious existential threat to the people of Pakistan and directly affects fundamental rights, “still the recent provincial budgets have not allocated any Climate Fund for climate change or come up with any effective strategies.” This becomes doubly worrying as monsoon rains are around the corner and the country has still not recovered from the devastating floods of the year 2022.

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The court ordered all the chief secretaries, as well as, Romina Khursheed Alam, Coordinator to the Prime Minister on Climate Change, Ministry of Climate Change and Secretary Climate Change, and, all the concerned officers to appear before the Court on the next date of hearing (15-07-24) and apprise the court of their strategies and steps taken.

Ayesha Khan, regional managing director Acumen was appointed as amicus curiae to assist the court.

The office was directed to send a copy of this order to the Prime Minister’s Secretariat so that the same be placed before the prime minister for his perusal.

In the last hearing, Romina Khursheed Alam and secretary Climate Change appeared before the bench along with additional attorney general and informed the court that five posts for members of the authority established under Section 5 of the Pakistan Climate Change Act, 2017, have been advertised and as a result, 752 applications have been received, which are under process and soon the said five posts will be filled.

The bench directed the coordinator to the prime minister to complete the exercise within a fortnight without fail and place on record its notification of a duly constituted authority before the next date of hearing.

When the bench inquired, if the Ministry of Climate Change has any climate change policy in place and the effective steps taken in order to address the challenges of climate change, nothing concrete was placed before us. It was mentioned that NDMA and PDMA are looking into the matter.

“Our understanding is that NDMA and PDMA are disaster management institutions, while the Ministry of Climate Change has to come up with preventive policies addressing the challenges of climate change head-on.”

The bench noted that it appears that no such policy is in place and no action on the ground has been taken.

Still we provide an opportunity to the secretary Climate Change to place the relevant policy on the record and apprise the Court on the next date as to what are the key challenges of climate change and what strategies and plans have been put in place by the ministry and what action has so far been taken.

“We have also heard the chief secretaries of Punjab, Sindh, KPK and Balochistan.” “We are not satisfied with their submissions and notice with concern that no material steps have been taken by the said provinces to deal with the challenges of climate change as there is no clear strategy (ies), action plans or any adequate steps taken on the ground.”

The chief secretaries undertake that they will submit relevant strategy/ action plans to deal with the issue of climate change in their respective provinces before the next date.

Let the said strategies clearly identifying the threats/ challenges of climate change in their respective provinces and steps taken to address the said challenges.

All the chief secretaries were asked whether the special budget has been allocated for climate change in the recent provincial budgets, their reply to this question was in the negative; however, as far as, Punjab is concerned, it has been pointed out that a loan of $50 million through Asian Development Bank (ADB) has been obtained and parked as Climate Change Fund, however, no document in this regard has been placed on the record.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024