Draft legislation on environment under preparation

Sindh Environment and Alternate Energy department is working on making drafts of new legislation regarding environmental issues which would be tabled in Sindh assembly after the devolution of Federal ministry of Environment.
The federal ministry of Environment along with two more ministries including women development and Sports were scheduled to be handed over to provinces in the first week of May but Implementation Commission on 18th amendment could not meet the deadline so it has announced that these three ministries would be devolved with rest other federal subjects in one go till the 30th June 2011.
The Environment departments of all provinces including Sindh are running under the umbrella of Federal ministry of environment and they all are following the Environmental protection Act 97 but after the devolution, Sindh and other provinces will have to make legislation regarding various environment related issues. According to sources, there is no Federal environment ministry's institute in Sindh, which would be handed over to provincial department. But, there are two Federal projects, running in the province including Environmental Monitoring system and NEIMS, which would be run by the provincial environment department after the devolution. It is also not yet decided that the Sindh environment department would run both projects on its own or federal will transfer its funds to the province, sources claimed.
In this connection, Secretary Environment and Alternate Energy Mir Hussain Ali confirmed this while talking to Business Recorder here at his office. He said that the committee under the Director General Sindh Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) is working hard in this regard. We have completed our homework regarding the devolution and work on the legislation is also continuing, he added. Ali has expressed reservations over the way of Implementation Commission and said that commission should have directly met the provincial department's authorities instead of dealing through Inter-provincial co-ordination department.
It is pertinent to mention here that 10 Federal Ministries including Education, Youth affairs, Zakat and Ushr, Local government and Rural Development, Social welfare and Special Education, Population Welfare, Culture, Tourism, livestock and dairies have already been transferred to provinces in the first and second phase of devolution.