CHITRAL, Pakistan: From the once pristine rivers of Hindu Kush to the slums of Islamabad, Pakistan is being smothered by plastic due to a lack of public awareness, government inertia, and poor waste management.
Plastic bags are a large part of the problem — the nation uses some 55 billion of them each year, according to the Pakistan Plastic Manufacturers Association.
Beaches deluged with plastic waste and dying marine life entangled in bags have shocked other countries into action — around 120 have implemented some form of single-use plastic ban.
Pakistan is among them but struggles with enforcement. There is no cohesive national policy and regional efforts often fail to consider the importance of educational outreach — with many in rural areas claiming to be unaware of the damage single use plastic can wreak.
“Fighting for the environment? We have no knowledge about that,” says salesman Mohammad Tahir, who uses plastic bags to wrap vegetables for his customers.
The 42-year-old hails from the mountainous Chitral district, which first banned the use of such bags two years ago — but to little effect.
“I like plastic bags,” shrugs resident Khairul Azam, while shopping at a local market.
“Once home, I throw them away... I know it is not good, but we don’t have waste bins in my neighborhood,” he adds.
Instead such waste litters the roadsides and hillsides. It also clogs the streams that feed into the Indus River, which is now the second most plastic polluted river in the world, behind only the Yangtze River in China, according to a study by the German Environmental Research Center Helmholtz.
Plastics swamp the Arabian Sea coastline, where the sewers of the sprawling port city of Karachi spew its waste.
According to the United Nations, single-use plastic bags kill up to one million birds, hundreds of thousands of marine mammals and turtles, along with “countless” fish each year.
And yet in Pakistan, authorities say the amount of plastic used is increasing by 15 percent each year.
Recycling options are limited and waste disposal is often woefully mismanaged — even in the capital garbage is often simply burned in the street.
“Plastic doesn’t degrade. It only becomes smaller and smaller,” says Hassaan Sipra, an environmental researcher.
“Animals eat it. You eat them. Then it generates liver dysfunctions, diabetes, diarrhea. But because it is cheap and convenient, people don’t see the health consequences,” he adds.
A new report by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) estimates that an average person ingests up to five grams of plastic a week — roughly equal to the weight of a credit card.
Plastic bags have become part of the “culture” in Pakistan, says Nazifa Butt, a researcher with WWF.
“We would never use a cup of tea without a saucer. You will never be sold anything without a plastic bag. It is considered insulting,” she adds.
In Chitral, authorities first tried to ban plastic bags in 2017, with an additional measure passed earlier this year stating that only biodegradable bags — also criticized for their environmental impact — can be used in the area.
Authorities have also backed new environmental awareness campaigns in schools, according to a local official.
But many shops still do not use biodegradable bags and enforcement against single-use plastics remains minimal.
“The local government is not sincere,” said Shabir Ahmad, chairman of the Chitral traders union.
He explains: “They never check the market. They don’t fine the shopkeepers.”
“I can confiscate all the plastic bags in one hour. But then, what is the alternative?” says Khurshid Alam Mehsud, a district administrative officer in Chitral, who insists more “time” is needed to address the issue.
Provincial governments in Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa along with municipal authorities in Lahore have issued similar bans. But little has changed on the ground due to lack of law enforcement.
However, Prime Minister Imran Khan’s government — which has long vowed to make environmental issues a priority — is hoping to reverse the plastic tsunami, says climate change minister Malik Amin Aslam.
As of August 14, plastic bags will be banned in the capital Islamabad, with violators subject to heavy fines.
“This love affair with plastic has to end in Pakistan,” says Aslam, who hopes that the ban in Islamabad will serve as a “model” for the rest of the country.
Some shopkeepers who spoke to AFP in Islamabad appeared prepared for the move — but others said they were unaware of the new measure.
Plastics manufacturers — who say up to 400,000 people work directly or indirectly in the industry — have also raised concerns.
But the Khan’s government says action is necessary regardless.
Aslam says: “It’s a health menace, it’s an economic menace, it is an environmental menace. It is something that we need to get rid of.”
‘I like plastic’: Pakistan’s toxic ‘love affair’ with waste
‘I like plastic’: Pakistan’s toxic ‘love affair’ with waste
- Amount of plastic used in Pakistan is increasing by 15% each year, authorities say
- The nation uses some 55 billion plastic bags annually, according to Pakistan Plastic Manufacturers Association
Tirah Valley residents flee homes ahead of Pakistan’s planned anti-militant army offensive
- Families flee militant-hit region on days-long journeys amid bitter winter cold
- Cash aid announced but displaced residents cite lack of evacuation planning
PAINDA CHEENA, Pakistan: In the rugged mountains of Pakistan’s Tirah Valley, long lines of tractor-trolleys and mini-pickups inched toward a registration camp earlier this month.
The vehicles were stacked with bedding, food supplies and families escaping their homes as a military operation against militants looms in the conflict-striken northwestern region.
At the Painda Cheena registration point, 60-year-old Hajji Muhammad Yousuf sat wrapped in a shawl, waiting with dozens of others after traveling nearly 40 kilometers from his village in Maidan Tirah, a journey that took four days instead of the usual few hours. He still faces another 66-kilometer trip to Bara, near the northwestern city of Peshawar, the provincial capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Like thousands of others, Yousuf is leaving behind a fully furnished home ahead of an expected security offensive in the volatile border region near Afghanistan.
“Today is our fourth night here,” Yousuf said. “We have left fully furnished houses behind ... There are no facilities, no amenities for us. We are facing great hardships.”
Officials say the evacuation could affect up to 20,000 families, marking a significant escalation in Pakistan’s campaign against the proscribed militant group Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). Despite major military operations in the mid-2010s, Tirah Valley has remained a stronghold for insurgents, prompting authorities to plan what they describe as a targeted clearance.
The scale of displacement has placed acute pressure on limited local infrastructure. While the journey from Maidan Tirah to the registration point at Mandi Kas normally takes around two hours by vehicle, congestion and verification procedures have stretched the trip into days for many families.
“Last night, a woman died of hunger in Sandana,” Yousuf said. “There is no arrangement for medicine, no doctor, no food, no washroom. Women and children are facing problems.”
Displaced residents say they feel trapped between militant threats and state action.
“We ourselves are opposing terrorism, yet we do not understand why, if a Taliban comes in the evening and we give bread, the government comes in the morning asking why the bread was given,” Yousuf said. “In the end, we were forced to do this [to leave].”
RELIEF MEASURES
The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) provincial government has announced a compensation package for displaced families. Talha Rafi, assistant commissioner for Bara, said authorities had set up 15 biometric counters at the registration site.
“One person receives a one-time compensation of Rs255,000 ($911), and a monthly Rs50,000 ($179) is provided,” he said, adding that SIM cards were being issued to ensure digital disbursement of funds.
Provincial officials say the payments are intended to cover basic needs during displacement, though residents and tribal elders argue that cash alone cannot offset the absence of shelter, health care and transport arrangements during evacuation.
The evacuation has also exposed tensions between the provincial government and Pakistan’s military establishment over the use of force in the region.
“We have neither allowed the operation nor will we ever allow the operation,” KP Law Minister Aftab Alam Afridi said, arguing that past military campaigns had failed to deliver lasting stability.
“These people are our own people. They are also the people of this state, the people of this province. We will definitely take care of them,” he said, adding that the KP cabinet had approved what he described as “a large package” for the displaced families.
Federal authorities and the military have signaled a firmer stance. While Federal Information Minister Ataullah Tarar and the military’s public relations wing did not respond to requests for comment, military spokesperson Lt. Gen. Ahmed Shareef Chaudhry has previously defended security operations as necessary.
In a recent briefing, Chaudhry said security forces carried out 75,175 intelligence-based operations nationwide last year, including more than 14,000 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, attributing the surge in violence to what he described as a “politically conducive environment” for militants.
Analysts say political divisions have allowed the TTP to regain ground.
Peshawar-based journalist Mehmood Jan Babar said many militants now operating in Tirah are local residents who returned after refusing settlement offers in remote parts of Afghanistan.
“Whenever we have seen division at the national level, the Taliban have taken advantage of it,” he said.
But for families waiting in freezing conditions at Painda Cheena, such strategic calculations offer little comfort. Tribal elders accuse civil authorities of ordering displacement without adequate logistical planning.
“The government has, without any administrative arrangements, ordered these people to migrate,” said Muhammad Khan Afridi, an elderly local resident. “You yourselves are seeing what suffering these people are facing, what humiliation they are experiencing.”
As a January 25 evacuation deadline approaches, uncertainty dominates daily life for those uprooted.
“Bringing peace is in the government’s hands,” Yousuf said. “It is up to them whether they normalize the situation or drive us out again tomorrow.”
