Islamabad, August 11, 2026: Chairperson of the Senate Standing Committee on Climate Change Senator Sherry Rehman has questioned the institutional rationale of the Pakistan Climate Change Authority (PCCA), arguing that its mandate substantially overlaps with that of the Ministry of Climate Change and Environmental Coordination.
Chairing a meeting of the committee on Tuesday, Rehman called for a fundamental review of the Authority’s role and directed the relevant authorities to provide a comprehensive, evidence-based explanation of its institutional justification, financial implications, staffing arrangements and distinct functions.
During a detailed briefing on the PCCA, Rehman expressed concern over the establishment of a separate authority at a time when the climate ministry was facing constrained and declining budgetary resources.
She noted that the ministry’s allocation under the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) had fallen to Rs2.478 billion, compared with Rs3.5 billion previously, which was subsequently reduced to Rs2.7 billion in the previous fiscal year.
The senator questioned why a separate authority had been established and 24 posts sanctioned when many of its core functions appeared to overlap with responsibilities already assigned to the ministry.
“The question is what additional value is this Authority creating when the functions listed under its mandate are already the responsibility of the Ministry?” she asked.
Rehman also questioned the movement of ministry officers to the Authority on deputation, arguing that the creation of parallel structures could result in duplication of expertise and resources.
She stressed that her concerns were not directed at individual officials but at institutional duplication and the repeated movement of the same technical expertise between government structures.
The committee was informed that several technical experts associated with the PCCA had previously served within the ministry. Rehman questioned the rationale for moving the “same faces” from one institutional structure to another, including the appointment of retired officers, when the stated purpose of the Authority was to provide additional technical capacity.
She said the PCCA had initially been conceived primarily as a mechanism for enhanced technical support and questioned whether such capacity could instead have been strengthened within the ministry.
The senator asked whether the Authority was creating genuine additional capacity or merely replicating functions, personnel and expertise already available within the federal climate governance structure.
The committee was also informed that coordination with provincial governments was among the PCCA’s responsibilities. Rehman pointed out that the ministry already had a clear mandate to coordinate with the provinces.
She observed that provincial governments might not engage effectively with a separate authority without the direct involvement of the ministry’s secretary, raising further questions about the Authority’s independent institutional relevance.
The committee also scrutinised the PCCA’s capacity to mobilise international climate finance, including resources from the Green Climate Fund (GCF).
Rehman said the committee had not received a satisfactory explanation regarding the Authority’s contribution to mobilising international climate finance and questioned the absence of substantial international linkages and upgraded institutional mechanisms.
“The presentation speaks volumes. If the same mandate, the same expertise and, in many cases, the same faces are being moved from the Ministry to an authority, then where is the additional capacity?” she remarked.
Rehman stressed that any new climate institution must demonstrate genuinely specialised, internationally competitive and demonstrably additional capacity rather than reproduce functions already available within the federal climate governance structure.
She directed the secretary concerned to appear before the committee at its next meeting with a clear and comprehensive explanation covering the PCCA’s institutional justification and distinct mandate, financial implications, staffing and deputation arrangements, technical value addition, international linkages, capacity to mobilise climate finance, mechanisms for coordination with provincial governments and the precise distinction between its responsibilities and those already assigned to the ministry.
Rehman maintained that if the PCCA could not demonstrate a distinct and measurable institutional value, the Authority should be abolished.
The committee also received a briefing on developments concerning Glacial Lake Outburst Floods (GLOFs), Pakistan’s increasingly vulnerable cryosphere and emerging risks faced by communities living in glacial and high-mountain regions.
A UNDP official informed the committee that Pakistan has more than 30,000 glaciers and that climate change was contributing to accelerated glacial melt. The committee was also informed that 108 disaster events had been handled through early warning systems, including two GLOF events.
Rehman expressed dissatisfaction with the briefing, noting that substantially the same presentation had been given to the committee the previous year without adequately demonstrating what had changed on the ground or what concrete measures had been undertaken since then.
She questioned why the briefing did not sufficiently reflect the scale and pace of glacial melting, including reports of around 16 per cent of glaciers having melted, the vulnerabilities of communities in affected areas and Pakistan’s forward-looking strategy for managing the escalating cryosphere crisis.
Rehman stressed that GLOF preparedness should not be treated as an isolated climate-sector issue and called for the briefing and response mechanisms to be integrated with the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) and the Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD).
She said PMD was the appropriate technical institution for critical information concerning weather, climate and glacial conditions, while NDMA needed to be fully integrated into preparedness, response and disaster-risk management.
The committee separately examined progress on rule-making, enforcement and implementation of the Islamabad Capital Territory (Prohibition of Plastic Book Covers) Act, 2026.
Rehman expressed strong dissatisfaction over the continued widespread use of plastic in Islamabad and questioned the effectiveness of enforcement mechanisms.
She noted that plastic waste continued to accumulate across the capital and contribute to blocked drains, while concerns also persisted over certificates being issued for products claimed to be recyclable or biodegradable.
“All of us have grown up without plastics on book covers. I made this law, and there has been weak compliance. Parliament is not a joke. Make sure compliance is mandatory,” she said.
Rehman questioned how the continued use of prohibited plastic products could be justified despite the legislative action.
She also raised concerns over products being promoted as “biodegradable”, stressing that such claims required proper standards and verification. She noted that only 9 per cent of plastic was recycled globally, while much of the remainder ultimately entered landfills, drains and the wider environment.
The senator said affordable alternatives were particularly important for ordinary citizens and lower-income households that relied on plastic packaging for everyday products such as milk and yoghurt.
She acknowledged that biodegradable and other alternatives were available through some startups and businesses but said the major challenge was scaling up production and making such alternatives affordable and accessible across the market.
“What can be done for so many people buying yoghurt and milk in the mornings?” she asked, stressing that the transition away from plastic must take into account the needs of low-income consumers.
Rehman said the plastics industry remained highly resistant to regulatory restrictions, while the state needed to create an enabling environment for affordable alternatives.
“After the ban, an alternative has to be given to poor people,” she stressed.
She also questioned the availability of plastic collection and recycling infrastructure and asked where collection centres were located to ensure that plastic waste was recovered rather than dumped into landfills or waterways.
The committee stressed that effective environmental regulation required both enforcement and an enabling framework allowing businesses, manufacturers and consumers to transition away from harmful materials without creating impractical or unaffordable burdens.
The meeting was attended by Senators Bushra Anjum Butt, Shazaam Durrani, Naseema Ehsan, Falak Naz, Syed Waqar Mehdi, Khalida Ateeb and Sarmad Ali. The Minister of State for Climate Change and Environmental Coordination was also in attendance.
