KARACHI, Feb 25: Speakers at a seminar observed that civil society could build up pressure on agencies concerned for protection of environment by innovative use of public interest litigation.

Majority of the speakers were of the view that the legislative and the executive had almost failed to handle environmental degradation and solve problems emerged due to non- judicious exploitation of natural resources and as such judiciary had enormous role to play for the improvement of the environment entity.

These views were expressed at the seminar on "Public interest litigation to protect environment" organized by the Society for Conservation and Protection of Environment (SCOPE) in collaboration with the Pakistan Environmental Law Association (PELA) here on Wednesday.

Presiding over the seminar, Justice (retd) Nasir Aslam Zahid said that people nursing grievances against government agencies, supposed to deal with the environmental issues, should move the courts as well. After undertaking research, they may prepare petitions and move courts of law with innovative approaches for relief, he added.

He pointed out that under the constitutional provisions, only the supreme court of the country could take suo motto actions while the high courts could not take such actions. However, he added that the judges of high courts were in a position to convert the letters from aggrieved citizens into petition.

He said that environmental degradation was at alarming level and as such there was dire need to implement various laws and make the environmental protection agencies, tribunals and magistrates effective. The civil society could exert pressure on the agencies concerned for the development and strengthening of enforcement mechanism to improve environment, he added.

In his key-note address, PELA president Dr Parvez Hassan discussed the legal provisions and reliefs on environmental issues in the country. He held that there was no fundamental right to respect environment in the Constitution.

"However, courts can provide relief through innovative interpretation of law, provided we keep the generalities with the public interest and not to pursuing anybody's special interest," he added.

Dr Hassan noted that when it came to environmental problems the legislative and executive did not respond in a real sense. Laws and decisions on environmental issues were available, but, the government agencies were not equipped adequately to implement those, he added.

The chief executive of SCOPE, Tanveer Arif, said that physical environment in which the people breathed and lived was being threatened due to some negative changes, which could be attributed to the shortsightedness, greed, inability and ignorance of individuals and groups.

A representative of Shehri, Roland de Souza, presented a case study of public interest litigation for the protection of urban- built environment in Karachi.

Owing to enormous population pressure and mushrooming urban and rural migration, he said, there had been abuse of land ignoring the available building and town planning laws for personal goals.

Two young lawyers, Qazi Athar and Jamshed A. Sheikh, presented the reports of a regional workshop on public interest litigation at Sri Lanka. The president of Scope, Dr Matiur Rehman also spoke at the seminar.