ISLAMABAD, Feb 27: Emboldened by the Supreme Court’s suo motu notice of the rising levels of pollution in the capital, the Pakistan Environmental Protection Agency (Pepa) has decided to go for the killing punch against the industrialists mocking the environmental laws.

The agency has constituted a monitoring team to conduct an indepth survey of the industrial units in the Industrial Estate Islamabad (IEI) to determine the level of pollution caused by the industry, a Pepa official told this reporter.

“With the involvement of the Supreme Court, it’s the right time to go for the permanent solution,” the official said, adding, “Now we are better placed to penalize those industrialists who are not willing to cooperate with us.”

In a decision on last Wednesday, the Supreme Court had ordered closure of two steel mills in the federal capital for not complying with the set environmental standards.

The eight-member bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry had ordered that Modern Steel Mills and Potohar Steel Mills would remain closed unless they adopted environment-friendly measures.

The apex court took the suo motu notice of adverse environmental conditions in the industrial area and sought action against the industrial units under the Environmental Protection Act 1997 for posing a serious threat to the life of the residents of I-9 and I-10 sectors.

Though initially data would be collected on the two mills in question, the agency has planned to conduct a detailed survey hence a strategy could be evolved to fight against the pollution on long-term basis.

Director General Pepa Asif Shuja had told the apex court during the hearing that out of over 200 industrial units in Islamabad, 115 had the potential of generating pollution. These include eight steel melting furnaces, 11 re-rolling mills, 25 steel mills, 25 flour mills, five oil and ghee mills, 31 marble cutting and polishing units, 10 pharmaceutical companies, two galvanizing mills, 23 metal working and 23 engineering units.

The residents of I-9 and I-10 sectors had long been complaining about the increasing cases of respiratory diseases due to the air pollution in area. One can easily see smog from a distance enveloping the affected sectors.

The low quality raw material used by the steel melting furnaces is the root cause of air pollution in the area, and despite repeated reminders the owners were least bothered about implementing the Pepa directives. “Neither had they improved the quality of steel nor did they place the required devices to cut down pollution,” the official said.