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MARCH
2010
ISSUES:
The
Enterprising Poor
THE
dynamics of a designated ‘poor’ household are interesting enough to
initiate a debate on its own. There are no two opinions about the
incidence of poverty and in its steady rise. Having said that, there is
also no denying the fact that the poor are in no mood to throw in the
towel. They are putting up a brave face against heavy odds.
The number of people living below the poverty line, according to the
Economic Survey 2008-09, has gone up from 33.8 in FY08 to 36.1 per cent
in FY09. While saying that “the latest poverty figures are not
available”, the Annual Report 2008-09 of the State Bank of Pakistan
also highlighted the fact that the share of “severely food-insecure
population” is expected to have increased by five percentage points to
28 in the year 2008.
With rising poverty and an even worse social and economic disparity
staring them in the face, the poor are taking charge of their own lives
instead of depending on the state to come to their rescue. While those
condemned to an existence in a rural setting have a plethora of
additional elements to fight against – inadequate infrastructure, lack
of opportunities and resources as well as a feudal mindset – the urban
poor have relatively easier accessibility to resources and
opportunities. And, by the looks of it, they are making the most of
these opportunities.
The global reference range for poverty set by the World Bank is $1.25-$2
per day, or Rs105-Rs170 per day. In developing countries, around 3.5
billion people live within the range.
The minimum wage set by the government, Rs6,000 per month, is higher
than the World Bank range, but these are apparently insufficient because
just paying the rent even in shanty settlements takes a considerable
chunk off the total. Education definitely is a luxury for the poor and
children start earning or at least learning some trade by the time they
are 10 years of age. The number of heads per household is pretty high
and they wish to keep it that way because everyone is an earning hand
and it is a clear case of being ‘more, the merrier’.
In his mid-40s, Mujahid Hussain lives in a two-room rented space in
Malir area along with his wife and seven children; four sons and three
daughters. He works as a helper to a carpenter who pays him Rs4,000 per
month. He makes on an average another Rs2,000 to Rs3,000 by taking up
minor woodwork assignments on his own at home.
His wife and two elder daughters aged 17 and 15 together earn about
Rs3,000 against stitching jobs which they take directly from within the
neighbourhood as well from some tailoring shops. Next come his three
sons – 14, 13 and 12 years of age – and they add an impressive
Rs7,000 to the family income.
The first two work with auto-mechanics and have completed their free
internships which means they make at least Rs100 per day, while the
younger one helps out a roadside vendor selling sugarcane juice against
which he gets Rs25-30 per day.
The only non-earning members in the household are Mujahid’s daughter
aged 8 and son who is two years her junior. They may not be earning, but
they are not inactive. The daughter carries out much more household
chores than one would normally imagine of a girl her age. This gives
more time for her mother and sisters to spend on their stitching
assignments. The son is the regular messenger-cum-delivery boy of the
family, keeping liaison with tailoring shops and clients in the
neighbourhood.
The youngest two are still in school – grade III and II, respectively
– while for the elders it came to a halt as soon as they completed
grade V, which, according to Mujahid, is “good enough for all
practical purposes”.
With his basic income of Rs4,000, Mujahid will be left with just half
that much after paying just the rent. Even with his own additional
income he will struggle to feed the nine mouths in the house, but the
overall family income of over Rs15,000 – sometimes going as high as
Rs20,000 – he can not only survive, but survive well. They have a
television set with cable connection which is the lone, but effective
source of entertainment. The family is also saving whatever it can for
the wedding of the two elder daughters which is something still at least
a couple of years away by which time the three sons would have grown up
in age, exposure and earning potential, while the younger two would have
joined the domestic workforce.
The family has its routine share of grudges against the system, but has
absolutely no doubt that the solution to the problem lies in their own
hands. It has neither the time nor the inclination to run after various
poverty-alleviation schemes that are announced by successive governments
from time to time.
The Mujahid household is not an isolated story. From Surjani Town and
New Karachi to Saudabad and Khokhrapar, from Orangi to Korangi and even
in localities that ring one posh area or the other in the heart of
Karachi, the basic contours of the story remain pretty much the same. In
fact it is true on the national scale as well otherwise things would
have been much worse with 42.8 per cent of the population living below
or around the poverty line. It is the only the enterprising nature of
the common man which is helping him beat poverty without any assistance
from the state.
(By
Humair Ishtiaq, Dawn-13, 29/03/2010)
Clean
drinking water still a distant dream
When nations around the world would be celebrating the World Water Day
2010 under the theme ‘Clean Water for a Healthy World’, the
residents of the country’s biggest city and industrial hub, Karachi
would be consuming highly polluted potable water.
The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED)
announced to observe World Water Day every year on March 22 to highlight
the importance of clean water in 1992 in a conference at Rio de Janeiro.
While, most countries have organised different events to highlight the
importance of the day, one such event titled “The Longest Toilet Queue”
has also been organised where thousands would participate worldwide from
March 20 to 22, as an attempt for setting a Guinness World Record
regarding global sanitation awareness. The majority of the citizens
living in the slum settlements of the city would practically be standing
in queues on the streets as they have no proper sanitation
facilities.
Despite tall claims by the government at various levels, the government
authorities would celebrate the day with traditional criminal silence
towards all water related issues. When it comes to clean potable water,
Karachi is an example of sheer negligence, where the only source of
drinking water to the city; the Keenjhar Lake is being polluted with
sewerage and industrial waste. The lake a Ramsar site, rich wetland,
protected game sanctuary and the biggest source of potable water to
millions of residents of Karachi and Thatta districts, is being polluted
with toxic effluent from industries, littering by tourists and washing
of vehicles.
The lake is being polluted from toxic effluent from the industries of
Kotri and Nooriabad and despite repeated requests by nature
conservationists and environmentalists’, the government so far has
done nothing to protect this lake.
Moreover, being the signatory of the 1971 convention held in the Iranian
city of Ramsar, the Pakistan government is bound to protect Keenjhar
Lake from pollution, but neither the government is bothering, nor the
officials of the Ramsar convention have so far taken notice of this fast
dying wetland.
(By
Amar Guriro, DailyTimes-B1, 22/03/2010)
Education
in Pakistan
Literacy
rate
Our
education system has to meet the basic learning needs of our society
emphasizing basic literacy and life skills, increasing access and
completion of quality education, address gender problem, geographical
and structural disparities, and enhance the efficiency of education
governance.
According
to Pakistan Social and Living Measurement (PSLM) Survey (2007-08), the
overall literacy rate (age 10 years and above) is 56% (69% for male and
44% for female) in 2007- 08 compared to 55% (67% for male and 42% for
female) in 2006-07. Literacy remains higher in urban areas (71%) than in
rural areas (49%) and more in men (69%) compared to women (44%). When
analyzed provincially, literacy rate in Punjab stood at 59 % followed by
Sindh (56%), NWFP (49%) and Balochistan at 46%. The literacy rate of
Punjab and Balochistan has improved considerably during 2006-07 to
2007-08
According
to the PSLM Survey 2007-08, the overall school attendance (age 10 years
and above) is 58% (71% for male and 46% for female) in 2007-08
compared to 56% (68 % for male and 44% for female) in 2005-06.
Province-wise
school attendance (age 10 and above) for 2007-08 as against 2005-06
shows Punjab to be on the top (62% Vs 59%) followed by Sindh (58% Vs
56%), Balochistan (42 % Vs 34 %) and NWFP (51% Vs 51 %) to be at the
lowest level. School attendance (age 10 years and above) remains higher
in urban areas (73%) than in rural areas (51%) and more in men (71%)
compared to women (46%). Nationally, the Gross Enrolment Rate (GER),
sometimes referred to participation rate, which is the number of
children attending primary school (age 5-9 years) divided by the number
of children who ought to be attending. The GER in case oremained 91%
between 2006-07 and 2007-08. Balochistan has shown noticeable increase
in the respective period.
The
Net Enrollment Rate (NER) refers to the number of students enrolled in
primary school of primary school age divided by the number of children
in the age group for that level of education. The NER as a whole in
2007-08 is 55% as compared to 56% in 2006-07. All the provinces have
shown a decreasing trend, interestingly, rural areas exhibited higher
rates in comparison to urban areas.
The
Gender Parity Index (GPI) is the ratio of females’ enrolment to the
males’ enrolment. A GPI of more than one indicates that, in
proportion, to every male in the school, there is more than one female.
The GPI for Pakistan as a whole in 2007- 08, is 0.64 compared to 0.63 in
2006-07.
Provincewise
GPI is high in Punjab (0.69) followed by Sindh (0.61), NWFP (0.49) and
Balochistan (0.35).
LEVEL
OF EDUCATION
i)
Pre-Primary Education
Pre-Primary
Education constitutes Early Childhood Education (ECE), Prep or Kachi
classes of children having age of 3-4 years. A decrease of 0.25% in
Pre-Primary enrolment (7.403 million) in 2007-08 over 2006-07
(7.423 million) has been observed and during 2008-09, it is estimated to
increase by 1.2%.
ii)
Primary Education (Classes I – V)
A
number of 157,899 Primary Schools with 438,823 Teachers are functional.
Moreover, 124 new schools have been added since July 2007. GPI in
Primary Education stood at 0.85.
iii)
Middle Education (Classes VI-VIII)
40,837
Middle Schools with 320,609 Teachers are functional (Table 10.4) and 489
new schools have been added since July 2007.GPI remained 0.77 in Middle
Education.
iv)
Secondary Education (Classes IX-X)
23,967
Secondary Schools with 374,249 Teachers are functional 353 new schools
have been added since July 2007 and GPI has been 0.75 in Secondary
Education.
v)
Higher Secondary / Inter Colleges
(Classes
XI-XII)
An
enrolment of 1.0 million is estimated in 2008-09 over 961,661 in 2007-08
and 902,448 in 2006-07. 3,218 Higher Secondary Schools /Inter Colleges
with 74,222 Teachers are functional (Table 10.4). 74 new schools / Inter
Colleges have been added since July 2007. GPI has been 0.99 in Higher
Secondary Education.
vi)
Degree Colleges Education (Classes XIIIXIV)
An
enrolment of 361,072 is expected in 2008-9 in Degree Colleges over
352,302 in 2007-8 and 348,814 in 2006-07. 1,198 Degree Colleges with
20,976 Teachers are functional. 21 new Degree Colleges have been added
since July 2007 and GPI has been 1.55 in Degree Colleges.
vii)
Universities Education (Classes XV onwards)
An
enrolment of 741,092 is estimated in 2008-09 in Higher Education over
640,061 in 2006-07. Four new Universities have been added since July
2007, making the total number to 124 universities with
46,893 Teachers in both Private and Public Sectors. GPI has been
0.86 in University Education. Over the past three years, 17 new
universities had been granted Charters. Majority of these have been
opened in areas where Higher Education opportunities were previously
unavailable. Twenty-three new and advance disciplines were
launched.Furthermore, 11 foreign institutions were allowed to operate in
Pakistan through franchising / collaborative arrangements with local
institutions of higher education.
(Source Economic
survey of Pakistan 2008 09)
Child
killed, several injured, 300 huts destroyed in shanty town blaze
Around 250 to 300 huts in Shanti Nagar were destroyed in a blaze which
engulfed the area late Friday night. A child died and several people
were injured in the fire, which was reported in a shanty town near
Majeed Para, Shanti Nagar, in the Aziz Bhatti police limits.
A similar fire, two years ago in the area, had claimed the lives of
three children. The residents, however, had rebuilt the shanties, and
gone back to living in the area that has been occupied by them for the
past 20 to 25 years.
The police said that the fire erupted suddenly late Friday night and
quickly engulfed all the huts. The residents tried to help themselves
and save the women and children. In the meantime, the police and fire
tenders reached the place and began rescue operations. Some of the
injured people were identified as five-year-old Danish, his mother
Fauzia, Abdul Rasheed, Aasma, three-year-old Natasha, 40-year-old Ghulam
Nabi, 45-year-old Fida Hussain, and Akmal. Danish died on the way to the
hospital due to severe burn wounds.
It took a total of three hours and 12 fire tenders from the City
District Government Karachi and other departments to bring the blaze
under control. The residents of the area later launched a protest and
alleged that the fire was the result of a conspiracy of land-grabbers,
who had been after the plot for several years.
Abdul Kareem, a resident of the area who was also injured in the blaze,
said that he was a labourer by profession. He had been collecting dowry
for a month for his daughter’s wedding which was scheduled for next
Sunday. The fire, however, destroyed everything.
Another victim, Abdul Sattar, who is also a labourer by profession, said
that at the time of fire, he was helping others save items from their
huts, when all of a sudden, his house caught fire too. He lost Rs60,000
cash.
Sattar said that he belonged to Multan, and had a plot of land there. A
few weeks ago, his brothers had sold the plot, and sent him his share of
the money, which came to about Rs50,000. In addition, Rs10,000 were his
life’s saving. All of this was lost in the fire.
The area comprised around 250 to 300 huts, all of which were destroyed
in the fire, rendering the residents homeless. The police, however, have
not been able to ascertain the cause of the blaze; further investigation
is under way.
Agencies add: Sindh Chief Minister (CM) Syed Qaim Ali Shah has taken
serious notice of the incident of fire in huts of a slum area in
Gulshan-e-Iqbal in which an innocent girl died and several others were
injured.
Qaim expressed his grief with the bereaved family and directed the
Health Department to provide all-out facilities to the injured.
Meanwhile, the MQM Rabita Committee also expressed concern over the
incident. It called for initiating probe into the incident, according to
a statement issued here by the MQM.
Sympathising with the victims of the incident, the Rabita Committee has
called for providing financial assistance to all the victims.
(The
News-13, 21/03/2010)
KCR
revival delayed due to MDA-PR land dispute
The
government’s efforts to revive Karachi Circular Railway (KCR) are
reportedly being hampered by land issue between the Malir Development
Authority (MDA) and the Pakistan Railways (PR). Donors are insisting on
rehabilitating affected people prior to issuing loans, The News has
learnt.
The main issue is that the PR’s land has been encroached upon, and
JICA, the prospective donor, is insisting on arrangements for the
settlement of the affected people before it provides financial
assistance for the KCR, Land Utilisation Additional Secretary-III Dr
Azhar Hussain said.
The dispute between the MDA and the PR over land in Bin Qasim Town had
continued since 1982, and the chief minister’s advisor on planning and
development, Dr Kaiser Bengali, had recently called a meeting to resolve
the land issue. The MDA was of the view that it would withdraw its
petition from the Sindh High Court if it were provided with alternative
land and money for infrastructure development, Dr Hussain said.
Meanwhile, sources said that following the meeting about the KCR chaired
by Dr Bengali on February 6, another meeting, chaired by Dr Hussain, was
held on March 12 to expedite efforts to resolve the land issue. It was
decided that the MDA and the PR authorities will ‘urgently’ withdraw
their cases in view of the decisions taken in the February 6 meeting.
According to official sources and documents available with The News, the
MDA has agreed to submit to a competent authority, a proposal pertaining
to its land withdrawal, alternative land and incurred expenditure. It
was also decided that the City District Government Karachi and the Board
of Revenue will continue to search for a ‘suitable’ alternative
piece of land in lieu of the settlement of the land under question (350
acres in Deh Khanto,Bin Qasim Town). This land was selected for the
rehabilitation of the people affected by the KCR project.
Officials said that the land dispute between the MDA and the PR was
discussed at length during the meeting. The MDA representative informed
the participants of the meeting about the withdrawal of the case pending
before the SHC. He also raised the question of alternative land in lieu
of withdrawal from 350 acres in Deh Khanto, and expenditure incurred so
far on the land.
The Bin Qasim Town additional district officer (revenue) and Mukhtiarkar
(revenue) informed the meeting that a piece of land as an alternative
was identified in Deh Kotierero. This land, which belongs to the Sindh
government was, however, declared ‘unsuitable’ by the MDA.
The land utilisation department will play an ‘active role’ after the
withdrawal of the case and the approval of the Sindh chief minister for
processing the case, an official privy to the decisions taken during the
February 6 meeting told The News.
(By
Imtiaz Ali, The News-13, 29/03/2010)
Sepa
issued notices to over 1,000 industrial units for causing pollution
Following
a massive industrial waste disposal operation in SITE industrial area
last month, the Sindh Environmental Protection Agency (Sepa) has so far
served notices to over 1,000 industrial units in Karachi for dumping
solid waste in open places and discharging industrial effluent without
chemical treatment into nullahs.
Of these 1,000 notices, 800 notices were solely served during the last
couple of weeks to industries in SITE area from where the Sepa had
arranged removal of roughly 11,500 tons of industrial waste following
Supreme Court’s orders in this regard.
“Following the removal of around 11,500 tons of industrial waste from
SITE area on Supreme Court’s directives, some 800 industrial units
have so far been issued notices for violating environmental laws and
dumping waste as per their previous practice,” a Sepa official told
The News on Monday. The official, who requested not to be named as he
was not authorized to speak to the media on the directives of DG Sepa
Naeem Mughal, said that Sepa had constituted eight teams which were
continuously inspecting the SITE industrial area as well as four other
industrial estates in Karachi to check environmental violations by the
industries.
“These 800 industries had been dumping their waste at the same places
from where we (Sepa), with the help of SITE Association of Industries
and SITE Limited, launched a massive waste disposal operation and
removed thousands of tons of industrial waste in about 10 days,” he
maintained.
In
addition to industries violating waste disposal and effluent treatment
laws, the administrations of SITE, Landhi and Korangi industrial estates
had also been served notices in this regard, the official maintained. As
many as 200 notices have been served to Landhi and Korangi industrial
units for dumping waste and discharging waste water in nullahs without
treatment, the Sepa official claimed, adding that administrative
authorities of these areas had also been held responsible for such
violations.
The Sepa official claimed that five different teams comprising Sepa
experts and analysts were busy only in SITE industrial area, where they
were pointing out industries violating environmental laws and were
collecting samples from individual industrial units to check the extent
of environmental pollution caused by them.
“The process of identifying industrial units and collecting data of
pollution caused by them is underway in order to send the cases of these
violators to environmental tribunal,” the official claimed, adding
that presently industries falling in ‘A’ category were being focused
by the Sepa teams.
He disclosed that although Sepa had also served notices to SITE Limited
for the violations of environmental laws, its staff was cooperating and
assisting Sepa teams in identifying the industries that were dumping
their waste in open spaces and discharging effluent without treatment.
When asked whether it was the responsibility of an industrial unit to
dispose of its waste at the landfill site of Gonpass or was it the job
of industrial areas’ managements to do so, he said both the industries
and the industrial areas’ managements were responsible for the safe
disposal of industrial waste and effluent.
“Industrial areas’ managements charge some fees from industrial
units for the disposal of solid waste by the industrial units and it is
mainly their job to keep their controlled area clean of industrial
waste. But individual industrial units are equally responsible as they
would be held responsible in the court of law for violating the
environmental laws,” the official added. Currently, Sepa was highly
under-staffed and facing acute shortage of resources including vehicles
and technical persons, the official maintained, adding that they had
hired five vehicles to facilitate its staff for monitoring and
inspection tasks.
“But I assure you that in the days to come, cases of many industrial
units and authorities would be sent to environmental tribunal for
causing environmental pollution and ignoring repeated warnings and
notices by the Sepa,” he claimed.
On the other hand, industrial areas’ managements were also facing
shortage of adequate funds and resources including the vehicles,
machinery and personnel to keep their areas cleaned of industrial waste
produced by the industries on daily basis, Sepa sources revealed. They
said that although Sepa had decided to take up the issue of industrial
pollution “very seriously” after its DG was reprimanded by Chief
Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry last month, the environmental
watchdog was also emphasizing upon industrial areas’ managements to
enhance their capacities and play their due role in preventing
environmental pollution.
Sepa sources said that a comprehensive mechanism for industrial waste
disposal, its monitoring as well as strict action against violators was
required to tackle the issue of various kinds of industrial pollution,
including solid waste dumping, effluent discharge or air pollution.
At the same time, Sepa needs a lot more resources like highly trained
and skilled manpower and equipment including vehicles to perform its
monitoring and prevention tasks effectively, they maintained.
(By
M. Waqar Bhatti, The News-13, 06/04/2010)
Garbage
dumping for land reclamation puts coastal communities’ livelihoods in
jeopardy
Reclamation
of coastal land by dumping truckloads of garbage around villages in Bin
Qasim Town on a daily basis has created uncertainty among the residents
who fear that they might lose their lands, graveyards, beautiful beaches
and traditional jetties if the practice continued unchecked. Tons of
garbage are brought from different towns of the city and dumped in
coastal villages of Ibrahim Hydri, Rehri, Chashma Goth, Jatt Goth, Akbar
Shah and Kalmati.
Local activists told The News that relevant officials, despite their
repeated complaints, did nothing in regard to stopping this practice.
Some of the activists recently threatened the owners of those vehicles
that were dumping garbage in the area. “We told the owners we would
burn their vehicles if the vehicles kept dumping urban waste in our
villages,” they said. The activists said that dumping garbage at the
beaches and grabbing of the reclaimed land had started many years ago.
“Certain influential people sell the land to private firms for
developing warehouses,” they added. Besides, they said, children of
the area receive injuries while roaming on burning heaps of garbage to
search for broken toys and valuable items.
The fisher folks living in the area consider the sea their mother. The
beaches in the area, the activists said, were once famous for their
scenic beauty but they now had been turned into garbage dumping sites.
“We can’t let certain people to pollute our sea or use it for
commercial purposes through practices such as reclamation of land,”
they said, adding that they were already facing many problems, such as
increasing marine pollution, depletion of mangroves forests and loss of
fish stock in the sea near the coast. They also believed that if the sea
was encroached from one side, it would start erosion from other sides.
“Forget about launching a single project for our welfare, the waste of
the entire city is being thrown at us,” they said.
Moreover, the sites where garbage trucks are being unloaded are the
scenic points where the local people enjoy in evenings. The
once-beautiful beaches have been covered by garbage and all one could
see there is smoke. The activists linked the garbage dumping and land
grabbing with the deprivation of the people of their amenity, saying
that colonies would be established on the reclaimed land and people from
outside would be settled there.
An activist, Karim Bux, said that trucks carried garbage and urban waste
that were unloaded and then burnt them near their abodes. He said that
they had sent applications to town and Union Council officials and the
elected representatives in this regard but all in vain. “We can’t
understand why they are reluctant to take any action” he said.
One fisherman, Allahdino, said that a mafia was involved in reclamation
of land. He added that they now had to travel to Thatta and Balochistan
waters in the search of fish as their beaches had become unproductive
due to increasing marine pollution.
The coastal communities activists demanded the government to save their
resources and mangroves forests and urged the concerned officials to
take steps to stop seawater from being further polluted. Meanwhile, they
warned the government and the elected representatives to stop
reclamation of scenic beaches by dumping waste.
(By
Jan Khaskheli, The News-19, 06/04/2010)
Toxic
waste dumping at Gondal Pass threatening lives
The lives and livelihood of tens of thousands of people is at stake
because the powerful Sindh Industrial Trading Estate (SITE), in
connivance with the Sindh Environmental Protection Agency (Sepa), is
dumping toxic and industrial waste at Gondal Pass some 25km from the
city without neutralising or segregating it, Dr Iqbal Saeed Khan, former
acting director general, Sepa and an environmental scientist told The
News.
The dumping of industrial and toxic waste generated at SITE, Pakistan’s
largest industrial estate, is being carried out after the Supreme
Court of Pakistan took suo mutto note of the issue recently and ordered
the SITE Association to dump its toxic and industrial material elsewhere
so that tragedies such as the one that occurred in SITE a few years ago
in which a child lost his life and another got auto amputated were not
repeated.
“There should be sanitary landfills to dispose of toxic and industrial
waste,” Dr Khan said. “The industrial and toxic waste should not be
mixed with municipal waste and preferably it should be utilised at
source and rendered non-reactive,” he said. However, toxic and
industrial waste that contains about 2,000 different chemical compounds,
including heavy metals, strong acids, strong alkalis and other agents
which may lead to damage of biodiversity and water bodies was being
dumped at Gondal Pass, Dr Khan said. He said that the minimum bare
standards for dumping toxic and industrial waste should be a “triple
layer of cemented floors and walls.” He pointed out that some three
decades ago human beings, animals and plants at Love Canal in the United
States suffered immensely although waste there was dumped in a deserted
landfill site.
The Sepa is supposed to monitor the dumping of toxic and industrial
waste in accordance with the orders of the Supreme Court of Pakistan but
it is merely a silent spectator. “The rationale behind the Supreme
Court order is safe disposal of toxic and industrial waste,” Dr Khan
said.
It may be recalled that the Supreme Court had directed the secretary
Sepa and managing director SITE to conduct a “thorough enquiry” and
submit elaborate reports in positive terms identifying the defects and
shortfalls in protecting the environment security and safety under the
law “within four weeks.”
The order was passed after a hearing in the Supreme Court on October 22
regarding the dumping of toxic waste in an industrial plot in Abidabad
in SITE that devoured a child Iftikhar, 9, while another child Shiraz,
10, was seriously burnt and auto-imputed.
(By
Shahid Husain, The News-13, 12/04/2010)
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