Introduction

EIA has been a mandatory legal requirement in Pakistan since 1994. SEA is a newer instrument in the country. The so-called 18th amendment of the Pakistani constitution (2011) devolved certain responsibilities for environmental management to the regional level. The devolvement applies to EIA and SEA, and has enabled the provinces and independent regions in Pakistan to draft their own EIA and SEA regulation. 

The EIA requirements in each province are similar, as they have built on the national regulations that pre-date decentralisation, but there are variations in the detail. For example, in some provinces there are requirements to engage registered experts for EIA, in others there are not. Similarly, many provinces have now introduced SEA requirements into their legislative framework, but some have not. In the scope of a Pakistani-Dutch collaboration, called the National Impact Assessment Programme, a detailed review of the Pakistan Environmental Protection Act of 1997 was undertaken, and draft regulation on SEA developed for the provinces to use as a template.


News

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