PM promises to leave behind pollution-free Pakistan

By News Desk

HARIPUR: Prime Minister Imran Khan on Thursday said the driving force behind the government’s 10 Billion Tree Tsunami Project and other such endeavours was its objective to leave behind a pollution free and environmentally protected Pakistan.

“One objective is to mitigate the impacts of the climate change. Secondly, we want to leave behind a Pakistan as we have seen when there used to be huge forest cover, wildlife, clean water and no pollution. But the situation deteriorated as no one pursued long term approach,” the Prime Minister said.

He was addressing a tree plantation ceremony here to mark the plantation of the “One Billionth Tree under the 10 Billion Tree Tsunami Project”.

The Prime Minister planted a Deodar sapling at Makhniyal Forest — the site where he had also launched the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government’s One Billion Tree Tsunami and the federal government’s 10 Billion Tree Tsunami Project.

Minister for Economic Affairs Omar Ayub, State Minister for Climate Change Zartaj Gul, State Minister for Information Farrukh Habib, aides Malik Amin Aslam and Shahbaz Gill, and Senator Faisal Javed attended the event. Khan appreciated Aslam’s efforts that he said contributed to the success of the One Billion Tree Tsunami project as well as the ongoing efforts to plant 10 billion trees, which were being recognised globally.

He said Pakistan would host World Environment Day on June 5, which was an acknowledgment of Pakistan being among the few countries making efforts to address the challenge of climate change. “This also shows that we really want to leave behind a better Pakistan for the future generations,” he added.

He said just like India, Pakistan’s rivers were fed by glaciers, which were melting fast and could cause problems in the future. Khan said the previous governments did not think long term and called for learning lessons from the Chinese model of reversing damage done to the environment.

He said through the tree plantation projects, the government was striving to protect the wetlands and revive wildlife, which had reduced to a great extent. He added that after a large number of trees were planted in a water-logged area along a river in Dera Ismail Khan, wildlife, as well as birds had returned.

He said on World Environment Day, Pakistan would highlight before the world as how it was reversing its natural capital from negative to positive growth.

Earlier, UN Environment Program Director presented to the Prime Minister a UN Report Titled “Inclusive Wealth of Pakistan: The Case for Investing in Natural Capital and Restoration.”

According to the report, Pakistan’s inclusive wealth increased at an average of 2.3 per cent annually in absolute terms during the period 1992-2019. Analysis of the individual capital categories show that human capital and produced capital grew at a rate of 2.9 per cent and 3.2 per cent respectively, while natural capital declined negligibly, around 0.1 per cent.

“There have been exciting recent developments in Pakistan’s management of natural capital. Afforestation across the country as part of the Ten Billion Tree Tsunami Programme (TBTTP) is expected to boost the nation’s renewable natural capital resources, particularly in the decades to come,” the report said.