PESHAWAR, Aug 3: The NWFP government has not been able to notify draft rules of the Forest Ordinance, 2002, even after two years of the promulgation of the new law, official sources said.
The new law that repealed four of the previous legislative pieces governing forest areas in the NWFP was promulgated through an ordinance by the governor in June 2002. However, even after two years of its promulgation the provincial environment department had not been able to notify complete set of draft rules, the sources said.
Procedural bottlenecks and apathy on the part of the official circles concerned did not let the draft rules to take effect, said the sources. "Process to underline rules of the ordinance had been on for the last five years (well before the ordinance was promulgated in June 2002), but the department has not been able to notify the draft rules even after two years of the promulgation of the new law," said Mohammed Riaz, a representative of the Sungi Development Foundation - a non-governmental organization carrying out activities in the forestry sector.
NWFP Environment Department Secretary Noorul Haq, confirming that the rules have not yet been notified, said: "Almost all of the new draft rules have been prepared but could not be notified because of procedural requirements."
Some of the new rules, he maintained, were under process with the law department, NWFP. Similarly, some involving financial matters were under scrutiny of the provincial finance department.
However, independent circles said that the non-formulation of the new rules had hindered 100 per cent application of the Forest Ordinance, 2002, that repealed the Forest Act, 1927, the Hazara Forest Act, 1936, the Kohat Mazri Control Act, 1953, and the North-West Frontier Province (Sale and Sawing of Timber) Act, 1996.
Though the new law, said the sources, covered most of the subjects that existed under the previous laws, it also contained some new provisions. Unless draft rules concerning the new legislative provisions- covered under the new law for the first time - were notified the new ordinance could not fully take effect, said a legal expert.
"Rules provide procedures to apply a law if it is not self- explanatory, hence, such provisions and chapters that have been covered under the new ordinance can not become applicable till relevant rules are notified," said the expert.
Inamullah Khan, who has been associated with the process of formulating the new forest ordinance in his capacity as a representative of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), said that draft rules concerning the new ordinance would be notified by the NWFP environment department as soon as they were finalized after fulfilling procedural requirements.
The environment department secretary said that the new law's provisions incorporated from the previous laws were under use because they were being applied with the help of old rules.
"The ordinance facilitates in this respect as it provides that old rules would remain applicable till replaced by the new ones," he said. However, in respect of the subjects and provisions covered under the new law, including the establishment of a forest force to prevent illegal cutting of trees and giving legal form to the joint forest management system, he said: "The draft rules are under process at different levels."
The Sungi representative said that the new ordinance had been prepared under the foreign funded forestry sector reforms project and work on the preparation of the new rules was started way back.
"Successive provincial governments have not been able to fulfil their obligation towards the donor agency at the cost of the reputation of the province," he said.
The environment department secretary said that the matter could not be pursued effectively because the department was busy in getting the new law extended to the Provincially-Administered Tribal Areas (Pata).
He said that in accordance with the Constitution, the province was required to ascertain approval of the president of Pakistan to extend a law to Pata involving six districts and one provincially-administered tribal agency.
