Laws & Regulations

The Pakistan Environmental Protection Act (PEPA) 1997 is the foundational federal environmental law, establishing the Pakistan Environmental Protection Agency and setting out the legal basis for environmental impact assessment, pollution control, and the National Environmental Quality Standards (NEQS) that govern permissible limits for air emissions, wastewater discharge, and noise.

Following the 18th Constitutional Amendment (2010), environmental regulation became primarily a provincial matter. Each province now operates its own Environmental Protection Agency under its own provincial EPA legislation — Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and Balochistan each have their own Act, broadly modeled on PEPA 1997 but with provincial variations in enforcement and procedure. This means the specific regulatory process for a given project often depends on which province it's in.

Development projects likely to affect the environment are required, under PEPA 1997 and its provincial equivalents, to undergo an EIA (for projects with significant potential impact) or an IEE (for smaller-scale projects) before approval. These assessments are reviewed by the relevant federal or provincial EPA, and are a central part of the compliance work many PAEP members are professionally involved in.

• The National Climate Change Policy and Climate Change Act, which provide the institutional basis for climate planning
• The Water Apportionment Accord 1991, governing inter-provincial water sharing
• Sector-specific regulations on forestry, wildlife, and fisheries administered at the provincial level

[INSERT: Links to specific acts/regulations PAEP wants indexed here, and any PAEP commentary on them]