ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECT OF

VEHICLES LOAN POLICY IN

PAKISTAN
Jahangir
Soomro,
Beijing
Normal
University, School of Environment, Student
No: 201429180009. Subject: Strategic
Environmental Assessment, Prof. Wei LI.
Dated: 2015-03-16
Pakistan is the sovereign country with the
land covering over 796, 095 Km2 and is the
36th largest country of the world in term of
land area with the population of around
180million. There is about 262,256 Km of
road network in Pakistan with the average
width of around 20 to 50 feet which is
suitable for the low traffic. As for the
growing population and as it is among
developing third world country the
economic investment sector are at their
peak, so to accumulate the economy varies
methods were being used in Pakistan. One
of which is of car loan policy.
Vehicular industry was introduced in the
early 1950s in which Pakistan started to
create its own vehicles, un-till in the early
1990s when the Japanese brand entered the
automobile industry like Suzuki, HINO,
Toyota and Honda. The automobile industry
at present has a stable annual production
rate of 100-170 thousand. Accordance to it
means, 1 vehicle for every 1000 person,
due to which Pakistan is faced when the
worst kind of environmental effect know to
us as traffic jam, as if the road network of

the Pakistan is not suitable to stand the

growing percentage of the vehicles.
In the early 2000s banks started a policy for
automobiles, so that everyone will have an
opportunity to buy and the automobile
industry should enhance the production.
Because of this policy the automobile
industry increased to 50 percent and not
only this as well as the banks started rising
the car finance up to 70-80 percent due to
low interest rate due to which automobile
industry went on the record peak in year
2006-2007.
Under aforementioned policy a high
revenue can be generated whoever they are
promoting the use of personal vehicles
instead of public transportation. Whoever
the government has made some policies to
overcome the excess of private vehicles
problems but these are not very effective.
The three largest cities of Pakistan which
are namely Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad,
respectively, in these cities the local
government with the help of UNDP (United
Nation Development Program) started a
metro bus system. Currently this project is
only in working condition at Lahore, with
little effect and in Islamabad and Karachi it
is in pipeline.
When in the year 2012 the metro was
introduced in Lahore its said to replace not
only the old buses system but also provide
new and safe way for people to get to their
destination quickly. But as the metro buses
have specific routes, so people prefer the
use of private vehicles instead of public
1

transportation and the current road network

in not capable to sustain the growing
private transportation.
As the government is trying to see the
country growth revenue so to neglected the
fact of running low on road system and the
as well as increasing the carbon emission
and the noise pollution. The country
produces around 35000 m3 per day of
crude oil and import around 6471 Kiloton
in the year 2009, which include gasoline
and diesels as according to the report
published in 2015 by UNDP and Pakistan

itself produce around 36000 ton of GHG

emission from the transportation sector. So
as for my understanding of the emission
and vehicle growth rate in the Pakistan, the
government should instead of focusing on
the economy divert its focus to enhancing
the road network by widening the road and
to restrict the use of automobile in some
areas or to introduce some policies
regarding the use of the old engine or
vehicles which emit more emission as for
the limitation of WHO (World Health
Organization).