LAHORE: In a major administrative decision aimed at strengthening transparency, legal enforceability and record protection, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Punjab has made it mandatory to issue all environmental approvals, laboratory certifications, environmental protection orders and import-related environmental recommendations exclusively through the digital e-FOAS system. According to a formal order issued by Director General EPA Punjab Dr Imran Hamid Sheikh (PAS), certifications of environmental laboratories, environmental approvals under Section 12, environmental protection orders under Section 16 of the Punjab Environmental Protection Act, 1997, as well as environmental recommendations for import licences, will now be processed and issued only through the centralized digital platform. The DG EPA stated the EPA Punjab has fully implemented a paperless regulatory regime, describing the move as a critical step towards ensuring transparency, traceability, institutional accountability and legal certainty. Under the new system, every document issued via e-FOAS will carry a system-generated unique reference number along with QR-code authentication, eliminating the scope for manual tampering or duplication. Copyright Business Recorder, 2025