KARACHI, Oct 10: The Sindh Environmental Protection Tribunal has directed the Sindh Environment Protection Agency to furnish a report on tanneries in Korangi found not complying with the National Environment Quality Standards and causing pollution in the area.

According to tribunal’s registrar Mushtari Khanum, its chairman Justice Khilji Arif Hussain heard a case against a tannery firm of Korangi on Oct 6 and ordered Sepa to prepare a detailed report on tanneries in Korangi area and the measures taken for compliance of environmental laws by tanners so far.

The registrar said the plaintiff Sepa and respondent tannery will state their positions in the case on Oct 27.

During the initial hearing, which was first of its kind in the environment history of Sindh, the environmental tribunal came up with the notion that Sepa should provide names of all such tanneries of Korangi area which were allegedly polluting the environment along with evidences, instead of naming one or two factories only. It is pertinent to note here that the tribunal, which was established under the Pakistan Environmental Protect Act in 1999, could be made functional only some months back.

The representative of the defendant firm pleaded that it was being implicated undue since the industry had not been operating for the last 10 months and hence the question of discharging the unwanted effluents in the area did not arise at all, the registrar said.

It has been learnt that the environment protection agency is of the view that a number of the tanneries deserve a trial deserve a trial for throwing toxic materials in sewerage channels open drains and land in their neighbourhood without processing the effluent in the recently commissioned combined effluent treatment plant set up by the Pakistan Tanners Association with the financial support of the Export Promotion Bureau and Netherlands government.