KARACHI, Jan 19: The Sindh Environmental Protection Tribunal has disposed of nine cases against tanneries in Korangi after the Sindh Environmental Protection Agency requested for the withdrawal of its complaints.

The three-member tribunal comprising its chairman, Shamsuddin Hisbani, and two members, Abdul Karim Memon, and Dr Samiuzzaman, was informed that three of the nine tanneries had changed their businesses while the other six had become members of the combined effluent treatment plant established by the Pakistan Tanners Association (PTA) with the financial support of the Export Promotion Bureau and the Netherlands government.

The tribunal concluded its proceedings in the nine identical complaints on Saturday and disposed of the cases in terms of the Sepa report that no further offence was being made by the tanneries and that it wanted to withdraw the cases.

A Sepa officer, S.M. Yahya, presented the report before the tribunal verifying the fact that three tanneries had been closed while six others had become members of the combined effluent treatment plant and were paying charges regularly.

Mr Yahya said that Sepa had no grievances against the six tanneries. He requested for the withdrawal of the cases.

In view of the statement made on behalf of Sepa, the tribunal disposed of the cases.

Earlier, Sepa had stated before the tribunal that a number of tanneries in Korangi failed to comply with the National Environment Quality Standards and polluting the environment of the area. The agency was of the view that a number of the tanneries deserve to be tried for throwing toxic materials in sewerage channels, open drains and land in their neighbourhood without processing the effluent in the combined effluent treatment plant of the PTA.

The tribunal had directed Sepa to furnish a report on the tanneries in Korangi found not following the national environment quality standards and violating the country’s environmental laws. Sepa had filed nine complaints against the owners of tanneries in Korangi.

However, the owners contended that they were member of the tanneries association and had been depositing the legal charges in respect of discharging the industrial waste to the system developed by the association and as such effluents were not going out to other drains or open land and they were not polluters.

The tribunal was established under the Pakistan Environmental Protection Act, 1999 and made functional with the appointment of its chairman and two members (legal and technical) in early 2007.