Members of the Senate standing committee on climate change Friday expressed displeasure over absence of chairman National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) and deferred deliberation on the 'National Disaster Management (Amendment) Bill, 2017' for the next meeting.
The meeting of the committee was held here at the Parliament House under the chairmanship of Senator Mir Muhammad Yousaf Badini. The absence of the chairman NDMA displeased Senator Pervaiz Rashid and he protested against the casual behavior displayed by the NDMA management. He raised concern, believing that such actions set an example for other executive institutions to replicate, which eventually lead to lack of respect for the parliamentary supremacy.
The mover of 'National Disaster Management (Amendment) Bill, 2017', Senator Mian Muhammad Ateeq Sheikh regretted that such indifferent behavior regarding an important piece of legislation having significant impact on the future course of action taken by the NDMA was disappointing.
He insisted that the chairman NDMA should have been present in person before the standing committee to deliberate upon the bill. The committee chairman also agreed with the senators and deferred the deliberation on the 'National Disaster Management (Amendment) Bill, 2017' for the next meeting. The director general environment and additional secretary climate change briefed the committee, in detail and steps taken for pro-poor gender sensitive adaptation 2012-2017.
They said the GLOF (glacial lake outburst flood) project had been sent to ECNEC for approval and it is expected to be a major game changer in the climate change environment.
The director general environment clarified that no gender specific policy had been formulated but clauses of existing policies exhibited gender inclusivity. The major hurdle faced in the implementation process was lack of cooperation with provinces since climate change was a devolved subject. Senator Samina Saeed called for inclusion of parliamentarians in the implementation process by entrusting them to bridge gaps between the federal and provincial governments.
Minister for Climate Change Senator Mushahid Ullah Khan appreciated the suggestion and vowed to formulate an eight-member coordination committee comprising four members each from both the houses with the condition that one member would be taken from each federating unit.
The minister also suggested inviting the members of coordination committee to standing committee meetings of both houses. This was accepted by the committee chairman as a positive gesture to facilitate implementation coordination for policies and programmes.
Khan further raised important points regarding environmental protection. He noted that the lack of awareness among the people is a looming threat for productive climate change policies and educating the local religious leaders is a viable way of solving this problem, since the local mosques have effective impact on the mindset of the general populace.