PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Tuesday imposed ban on the use of mercury in mining and issued notice to Department of Minerals Development, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Peshawar High Court Chief Justice Ishtiaq Ibrahim and Justice Waqar heard the petition against the use of mercury in gold mining in Kohat.
During the hearing, the petitioner's lawyer argued that the water in the area is being poisoned due to the use of mercury during mining. The mercury is burned to extract gold, while the use of mercury is banned worldwide.
After the arguments of the lawyers, the court ordered to ban the use of mercury in mining.
The court issued a notice to the officials of the Department of Minerals Development and summoned them for the next hearing and adjourned the hearing.
Earlier, residents of Khushal Garh, Kohat moved Peshawar High Court against use of mercury in gold mining in the area, terming it an environmental hazard resulting in contamination of air, polluting the Indus River and also affecting agricultural land adjacent to the mines.
A petition was jointly filed by former provincial minister Amjad Khan Afridi and 13 others as public interest litigation in the green bench of the high court through Advocate Nouman Muhib Kakakhel.
They contended that using and dumping mercury was poisonous to humans, animals, flora and fauna and aquatic life and was also having a negative impact on agricultural lands.
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They said that use of mercury and other environment polluting activities of miners should be declared unconstitutional as a healthy environment was fundamental right of everyone after the passage of Constitution (Twenty Sixth) Amendment Act.
Petitioners said that the practice was also violate of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Environmental Protection Act and Minamata Convention on Mercury, a multilateral environmental agreement that addressed specific human activities that were contributing to widespread mercury pollution.
