EPA, NA speaker lock horns over business licence renewal

LAHORE
Environment Protection Agency (EPA) Punjab and National Assembly Speaker have locked horns over the issue of renewal of licence of a private business as the earlier declared it against the rules while the later recommended immediate transfer of EPA DG over the issue.
National Assembly Speaker has asked the Punjab Chief Secretary to initiate action against Director General Environment Protection Agency (EPA) Punjab and another senior official besides their immediate transfers from their posts. Sources in Punjab Civil Secretariat revealed that Secretary to National Assembly Speaker wrote a formal letter to the Punjab Chief Secretary, which was received at the office of the chief secretary on May 20, 2015. A copy of the letter is also available with The News. The dairy number of the letter is 4,423 and it was also sent to the Provincial Secretary Environment and Provincial Secretary I&C.
The letter stated that EPA senior officials had maltreated a noted businessman Faisal of M/s One Step traders (a business company) who approached the agency for reconfirmation of his business licence, issued by the same agency and valid till 2018. “However, the same is consistently being denied without any legitimate reason by the EPA Director General Farooq Hamid Sheikh and EPA Director Mr Shahid,” the letter stated.
The Secretary to National Assembly Speaker said it had also been alleged that the two officials had been creating unnecessary hurdles in reconfirming the stated business licence by using delaying tactics with an ulterior motive to garner illegal monetary benefits and in the latest development, they plainly refused to reconfirm the said licence on fictitious reasons of non-provision of required documents. He said that on the directions of Honourable NA Speaker, Provincial Secretary EPD Dr Iqbal was approached on May 12, 2015 to intervene into the matter for an amicable settlement. “The secretary’s office verified the facts through its technical officials and found the complaint of Mr Faisal in order,” the letter quoted adding however much to the surprise, the EPD secretary had also rendered his inability to rectify the situation as according to him, the two officials had refused to mend their unexplainable behaviour.
“The EPD secretary has also reported that he has already forwarded a request for transfer of EPA DG due to his non-cooperative behaviour and complaints against him,” the letter said, adding that since both above mentioned officials are adversely affecting corporate business activities in the province, the honourable Speaker has desired that appropriate action be initiated against them and they be transferred from their present position.
Sources in Punjab Civil Secretariat said that the EPD secretary requested the chief secretary to transfer EPA DG wide letter 42/PS/Secy/EPD: dated 03 March, 2015. He, in his letter, claimed that since taking charge of EPD he had found the performance of the department unsatisfactory and below its potential capacity. He alleged that the failures of the department were due to the lack of capacity on part of EPA DG Farooq Hamid Sheikh. Copy of this letter is also present with The News.
The secretary claimed that during his tenure, EPA DG had been unable to provide leadership in strategic direction, planning and policy development. “He failed to evolve an effective annual development programme. He could not efficiently utilise the resources provided by the government. He has been neglectful in effective monitoring of the ongoing projects and has failed to functionalise the implemented projects of the department,” the secretary EPD wrote in his letter.
The secretary, in his letter, added that Farooq Hamid resisted initiatives aimed at restructuring and modernisation of the department and lacked acumen to prioritise the objectives. The result is that the department has not been able to align its objectives in step with the vision of the chief minister. In fact, his performance has been much below the level expected of the head of the agency, the secretary’s letter maintained.
In the end, EPD provincial secretary said in view of the aforementioned and to enable the department to achieve its mandated targets efficiently, it is requested that as the very first step, Farooq Hamid Sheikh may please be transferred out of this department.
When contacted, Farooq Hamid Sheikh said that he was soon going to serve a legal notice on National Assembly Speaker for his character assassination as EPA DG as well as interfering in provincial affairs. He said the EPA, through the EPD, got the request of Federal Ministry of Climate Change to carry out a detailed inspection of the said business and found it illegal and against the Basal Convention, which is an international treaty that was designed to reduce the movements of hazardous waste between nations, and specifically to prevent transfer of hazardous waste from developed to less developed countries.
He said on inspection, the EPA’s team found that the businessman was misusing the business licence given to him by the Federal Ministry of Climate Change and was importing other electronics in the garb of scrap compressors. He said that the business was not covering any of the conditions of the Ministry of Climate Change to run the business of importing scrap compressors and then dismantling them in an environment friendly means.
He said after the inspection, a detailed report was submitted to the EPD secretary, who was supposed to forward it to the ministry under a covering letter. He said he didn’t receive any objection on the report from the secretary. He said the businessman had first lodged a complaint against District Officer (Environment) and now he was trying to drag him and EPA Director in the case.
He said the chief secretary had forwarded the letter of NA Speaker to the Chief Minister’s Inspection Team for verification of facts. He said he had already submitted his detailed reply along with the inspection report of the business to the CMIT. Answering a question, he said he would serve a legal notice on the National Assembly Speaker as EPA Director General.