KARACHI, March 18: The Director General of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has stressed the need for an early establishment of environment protection tribunal in Sindh to prosecute violators of the relevant laws.

"Such tribunals are already functioning in the NWFP and Punjab. We have approached the relevant quarters for the early setting up of the tribunal in Sindh," the official, Mohammad Younus Dagha said in an interview on Thursday.

He said that by setting up the tribunal, implementation of Environmental Protection Rules would become easy. Mr Dagha said that there were a number of factors contributing to environmental pollution. The agriculture pollution, he added, was the result of pesticide of various types being used by farmers.

The Indus river getting polluted at Kashmor, the entry point in Sindh. He said the EPA was facing a shortage of staff as it had only four deputy directors, one of them assigned the duty of monitoring. The EPA official said that the government was planning to expand its working and establish EPA offices in major cities and towns of the province. -APP