5- Poor Govt. Support and Week Infrastructure:

5- Poor Govt. Support and Week Infrastructure: 

Moreover, the less developed countries like Pakistan are scary about contractual restriction of international standards adoption. According to Sasseville et al (1997:p.62) a considerable variance regarding acceptance and adoption of EMS may be seen depending upon country.  Furthermore, it is argue that lack of well defined policies and appropriate legislative infrastructure; is a barrier in the way of implementation (Hortensius and Barthel (eds.) in Sheldon, 1997) but with the desire to improve the environmental record industrial sector is hoping for the best. Legal implications are mentioned by Sasseville et al (1997: p. 205) given as

·         “Will ISO 14001 create a new standard of care?

·         Is the information you generated as part of your EMS discoverable by the government or other third party?

·         Will government bodies’ use, rely on, or require ISO 14001?

·         Are their liabilities associated with certifications process?

Developing countries might feel less confusion regarding adoption of EMS as compared to developed one owing to unavailability of EMS or poor standards of EMS but the above mentioned legal implications can give a tough time for adoption and maintenance of EMS. Quazi (1997) argues that the legal binding can hinder the implementation process and such obligations can push the organization, not to seek the certification or even terminate the certification process.

 Although, the ministry of environment in Pakistan is fully committed and aware to resolve the environmental issues by providing technical support to industrial sector but it is still in initial phase. Massoud et al (2010: p 207) states that “the provision of special tax exemption, training and capacity building , provision of the soft loans and enhancing knowledge on ISO 14001 EMS are perceived as most important factors” to ease the successful adoption of EMS. It is identified by UNIDO experts that developing countries, least develop countries especially, facing issues like poor government policies, less emphasize on institute building (Hillary 1997: p. 41) and promotion of EMS implementation. The public sector participation and support is considered as most effective supporting element for successful implementation and to reduce and overcome the obstacles in adoption of EMS.

Supporting evidence can be imported from ‘Expert Seminar’ held in London on 22-23, September 1994 by the participants of the UNEP IE/PAC Cleaner Production Programme: Environmental Management Systems in the promotion of cleaner processes and products. The recommended elements of seminar has been mentioned below

·         “ Government should develop policies which allow enterprise to build on the existing mandatory framework, by aligning economic and environmental goals

·          Standards and other measures to promote  environmental management systems need to respect international differences but all need to incorporate clear and credible continuous environmental performance

·          Government should take the uptake of voluntary environmental management system

·         Government and international organizations should establish to programmes to communicate the objective of environmental management systems clearly

·         Government should encourage and enterprise should adopt environmental management systems which ensure credibility, accountability and comparability” (Hillary 1997: p. 5-6).