KARACHI, Jan 1: The City District Government Karachi has decided not to take action against manufacturers, sellers and users of polythene bags till January 15 despite a ban imposed by the Sindh home department recently.

A spokesman for the city government told Dawn on Wednesday that the campaign against polythene bags was being put on hold for two weeks in the light of decisions made at a joint meeting of the CDGK and the All Karachi Plastic Bags Manufacturers Association (AKPBMA) held on Dec 23. The meeting was presided over by Karachi Nazim Mustafa Kamal, currently visiting London.

The Sindh home department had issued a notification on Monday imposing a ban on the manufacture, sale and use of polythene bags having 300 or less microns of thickness in the limits of the Karachi city government for 30 days under Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code with immediate effect and warned that the violators of the order would be punished under Section 188 of the Pakistan Penal Code.

Saying that the home department was being approached for amending the relevant ban order, the spokesman said the CDGK was all set to launch a comprehensive drive against the production, use and sale of polythene bags which were less than 150 microns in thickness from Jan 16.

“The action plan in this connection has already been finalised so that the decisions made at the joint meeting of the city government and AKPBMA could be fully implemented,” he added.

The spokesman said it had been decided at the meeting that manufacturers of plastic bags would voluntarily follow the restriction on the production of bags of less than 150 microns thickness and smaller than 18X24 inches.

The banned polythene bags would neither be brought into Karachi nor supplied to any other city, otherwise magistrates of the city government would take strict action against the violators in coordination with office-bearers of AKPBMA, he said.

Meanwhile, citing the polythene bags as an obstruction in the management of sewers, and a major cause of environmental pollution, the city government appealed to plastic bags manufacturers to cooperate with the CDGK. The town nazims would be entrusted with the task of keeping a check on the production, sale and usage of polythene bags in their jurisdictions.

The Karachi nazim also directed Additional EDO for Revenue Matanat Ali Khan to ensure that banned plastic bags were neither manufactured in Karachi nor were they brought in from outside.