PESHAWAR: The federal government on Friday decided to impose a countrywide ban on the use of plastic bags. In the first phase, the complete ban on will enforced on plastic bags in the federal capital territory.
The decision was taken during a high-level meeting on climate change in Islamabad. Prime Minister, Imran Khan, chaired the meeting. Advisor to PM on environment, Minister for food security and planning, Federal Minister for Energy Umer Ayub Khan, Federal Adviser on trade Abdur Razaq Daud and Firdous Ashiq Awan also present on this occasion.
The Chief Minister of all the four provinces, Prime Minister of Azad Kashmir, Federal finance advisor Abdul Hafiz Shaikh and other senior officers of the federal government also attended the meeting and briefed the PM about the climate change and food security situation in the country.
During the meeting, the prime minister was briefed about the electric vehicle policy. He was briefed about the smog and related environmental issues in Punjab and the efforts so far taken by the Punjab government to tackle it.
The prime minister was also briefed about the progress on the plantation of 10 billion trees in the country. The Premier was informed that the officials have made all the rules and regulations to ban the plastic bags in the capital territory. After which, it was deiced that from August 14, there will be a complete ban on the use of plastic bags in Islamabad.
The federal minister for climate change, Zartaj Gul on May 9, has also informed the national assembly the government is going to ban the single use of plastic bags in the capital from August 14. She has said that the government will draft a statutory Notification under the Pakistan environment act to provide legal support to the action. Gul has said that 5000 cotton bags have been procured to be distributed among the federal government employees to discourage the use of plastic bags.
The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Baluchistan government have already enforced a ban on plastic bags but so the order couldn’t be implemented.
