The Ministry of Environment has set itself a challenging task of introducing Euro-II emission standards for petrol driven vehicles from July this year and for diesel driven automobiles from July 2012. The National Assembly was informed on Monday that to cut down on increasing air pollution in the country, the ministry has set Euro-II emission standards as the benchmark to measure vehicular emissions in the country. Under Euro-II emission standards, a petrol driven vehicle could only emit 2.2 gram/kilometre (g/km) Carbon Monoxide and 0.5 g/km Hydrocarbons + Nitrogen Oxides (HC+NOx). And for diesel driven automobiles, the standard would be 1 g/km Carbon Monoxide and 0.9 g/km Hydrocarbons + Nitrogen Oxides (HC+NOx). Neither Minister for Environment Hameedullah Jan Afridi nor his parliamentary secretary was present in the session to respond to the supplementary question asked by the legislators. Taking notice of the minister