Thaindian News

Islamabad, April 16(ANI): Pakistani intelligence agencies have seized the records of at least two federal ministries to investigate an alleged institutional lapse in raising objections over India’s bid to secure international carbon credits on hydropower projects disputed by Pakistan.

According to sources, the agencies came into action after receiving reports that both the Water and Power Ministry and the Environment Ministry had absolved themselves of negligence in the matter.

They noted that the Ministry of Water and Power had said it was not responsible for the lapse because it was the job of the Pakistan Environmental Protection Agency to conduct an environmental impact assessment in this regard.

The ministry said it had no role in the ratification of trans-boundary impact assessments, whose documents had not been shared with it, the Dawn reported.

The Environment Ministry also washed its hand off the matter, saying that it could not have intervened unless its attention had been drawn to the issue and professional advice sought, as the Indian projects were of strategic nature.

Earlier, the prime minister’s office had asked the Ministries of Water and Power, Foreign Affairs and Environment as to how India had secured carbon credits from the United Nations for the Chutak and Nimoo-Bazgo hydropower projects.

The ministries were taken by surprise over India’s success in getting carbon credits without clearance by Pakistan on the cross-border environmental impact assessment reports of the projects, despite Islamabad’s representative heading a forum of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) that approved such credits.

Under the UNFCCC mechanism, carbon credit cannot be granted for a project having a cross-boundary environmental impact unless cleared by the countries concerned.

Officials said that the alleged lapse might have already compromised Pakistan’s opposition to the hydropower projects. (ANI)