The chairman of the Pakistan Tanners Association (PTA) has requested the country’s environmental laws be relaxed for at least three years to give aeration waste schemes time to develop.

Agha Saiddain requested that the government relax National Environmental Quality Standards by between 30% and 40% at a recent meeting with Punjab’s Minister for Environment Protection Department, Shuja Khanzada.

He also asked for free transportation of solid waste to landfill sites and suggested all tanneries in the Sialkot Tannery Zone should be connected to a combined treatment plant.

The notion that the government could provide land for leather parks which small tanneries would relocate to was also discussed.