Lahore High Court (LHC) has granted a stay order against establishment of 1320 MW imported coal power project in Sahiwal in response to a petition of M/s Saif Group, Salim Saif ullah Khan and 22 others. According to the writ petition, 1320 MWs coal-fired plant being set up in Sahiwal under the patronage of the Punjab Government has a huge environmental issue.
The petitioners have claimed that the project is situated right in the centre of Pakistan''s best agricultural fields and will affect the health of humans, animals and crops, besides adversely affecting nearby industry. The petitioners further argued that coal power plants cannot possibly be allowed to be established in the vicinity of an area with a huge population and enriched with agricultural land as it is capable of causing serious health issues and can also lead to several environmental problems.
Official documents reveal that the petitioners gained knowledge from various quarters and concluded that the entire process of Environmental Impact Assessment of the project was undertaken in a cursory manner and with undue haste without involving the concerned shareholders. Not only this, the EIA report contains discrepancies and errors, which are deliberately motivated to push the project through in an illegal manner. It is believed that this Project also does not fall under the limits of the National Environmental Quality Standards (NEQS) and is breaching those limits.
"As a result of this the ambient air conditions in the surrounding area will deteriorate which will destroy the environment in that area and will expose everyone to serious health hazards besides affecting industrial units," says the petition. The IHC has issued notices to the parties for October 29, 2015. The petitioners have made the following organisations/departments party to the writ petition: Punjab Environment Protection Agency, Punjab Power Development Board, Punjab Power Development Company, Huaneng Shandong Ruyi (Pakistan) Energy (Private Limited and the Province of Punjab through Secretary Energy.
One of the petitioners told Business Recorder that while the world is doing away with coal power plants, Pakistan is going in the opposite direction. Even if coal plants are developed, they are put up in coastal or remote areas where the risk to health is minimal. Also, a new coal power project has to take care that it is not affecting other power plants in the vicinity which are on clean fuel.