Adviser to Prime Minister Federal Minister for Climate Change, Malik Amin Aslam Tuesday said Pakistan’s toxic love affair with plastic bag has to end and after 14th August no plastic bags would be tolerated. He said banning plastic bag in the federal capital was public interest litigation and it would only be effective with public cooperation. He made these remarks in a meeting regarding banning polythene shopping bag (plastic bags) was held in the Ministry of Climate Change in which senior officials from Ministry of Climate Change, EPA and ICT participated, a press release said. While chairing the meeting Federal Minister directed Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) and Pakistan Environmental Protection Agency (PAK-EPA) officials to chalk out a plan regarding distribution of alternative bags and dissemination of information regarding their availability. Minister was briefed that out of all the plastic materials polythene had been targeted being non-recyclable and hazardous to the environmental. Secretary Ministry of Climate Change told the minister that each importer or distributer of such No polythene shopping bags after Aug 14: Amin Islamabad Traffic Police (ITP) has launched road safety campaign in order to ensure traffic discipline in the city and overcome accidents through creating awareness about traffic rules among road users. The campaign has been launched following the directions of Inspector General of Police (IGP) Islamabad Muhammad Aamir Zulfiqar and DIG (Security) Waqar Ahmed Chohan has finalized this campaign to achieve desired results. According to the details, three vehicles, ITP Education Team, ITP’s Float, Capital Highway Inspection Patrolling Squads (CHIPS), Quick Road safety campaign kicks off in Capital Response Tea, all Zonal DSPs, staff of ITP FM Radio 92.4 and other operation staff would participate in this campaign. They would deliver messages to the road users and special announcement about road safety tips would be made at important boulevards, chowks, commercial centres and main avenues of the city about. During this campaign, motorcyclists would be educated about using front and rear mirrors while motorists would be educated to follow lane discipline and avoid use of mobile phones during driving along with other laws. Superintendent of Police (Traffic) Khalid Rasheed would himself monitor this campaign while staff of ITP would work in shifts to impart traffic education among road users. They would remain present in shifts from 8:00 am to 10:30 am and 4:00 pm to 6:30 pm at Faizabad, Dhokri Chowk, Khayaban Chowk, Express Chowk, Shaheen Chowk, Jinnah Super Market, Super Market, Blue Area (Savor Food), G-9 Markaz, F-10 Markaz, G- 11 Markaz, Aabpara Market and other areas to educate citizens about traffic rules. The purpose of this campaign is to ensure better traffic discipline through cooperation of citizens and creating traffic sense among them.—APP Adviser to the Prime Minister / Federal Minister for Climate Change, Malik Amin Aslam chairs a meeting in order to ban plastic bags. plastic bags had been directed to devise a plant or unit for collection and recycling of plastic bags. This would be producer’s responsibility to handle post-consumer stage. Only exceptions include industrial packaging, municipal waste, hospital waste and hazardous waste. “Exception criteria are very strict and based on the principle of product integrity and non-availability of alternative packaging material. Moreover, there is a system of labeling and record keeping in place in order to record importer or manufacture’s identify and percentage of recycled content. Media campaign would last until August 24 while 110,000 alternative material bags would be distributed in various ministries and at general public bazaars,” it added. It mentioned that administrative penalties would be imposed by the district administration (ICT) and EPA. SRO provides a penalty of Rs. 100,000/- to Rs. 500,000/- for manufacturer or whole sellers, Rs. 10,000/- to Rs. 50,000/- for shop keepers and Rs 5000/- for other individuals involved or found carrying plastic or polythene bags.—APP
