Plant to recycle sacred papers to be established in a year

Islamabad:Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony Secretary Sardar Ajaz Ahmad Khan Jaffar Monday vowed to establish the sacred papers recycling plant, Islamabad in a year as the project was in the doldrums since 2016.

Chairing the Departmental Development Working Party’s meeting, he took up the longstanding issues of public interests pertaining to the Ministry of Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony and approved three development schemes including the establishment of sacred papers recycling plant, Islamabad, construction of new Haji Camp, Lahore and setting up a solar tube well in the Haji Camp, Quetta.

He said the sacred papers recycling plant would be established on the principles of Shariah and run on the scientific lines. For the construction of recycling plant, a piece of 10 canal land had already been allocated in the Haji Camp Islamabad and it would cost Rs331 million, he added.

Secretary Sardar Ajaz said it would be constructed by the Pakistan Public Works Department (PWD) within the period of one year. He was of the view that the recycling plant would help dispose of the sacred papers of the Holy Quran in appropriate and respectful manners and decrease the blasphemous incidents to some extent in the society.

He further informed that the new Haji Camp, Lahore would be constructed at 57 canal land in Harbanspura with the estimated cost of Rs1,996 million by the PWD in three years. He said it would be comprised of residential block, training hall, cafeteria, mosque, and administrative block besides private banks and airlines counters etcetera.

The boundaries of the Haji Camp Lahore had already been completed, he added. He said a solar tube well was also being erected in the Haji Camp Quetta with the estimated cost of Rs15 million in the one year’s tenure.

The meeting under the chairmanship of religious affairs secretary was attended by the representatives of finance and planning divisions, PWD, Pakistan Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, Council for Islamic Ideology (CII) and Pakistan Environment Protection Agency.

The religious affairs ministry’s Development and Coordination Department exclusively briefed the meeting over all the aspects of the following schemes. It is pertinent to mention here that the Senate Standing Committee on Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony and CII had already approved the establishment of sacred papers recycling plant unanimously.

The process of recycling would include pulping, deinking and new paper making. The ink would be removed in a flotation process where air would be blown into the solution. The ink would rise to the surface in adherence to bubbles of air from where it would be separated. After the ink was separated, the fiber may be bleached, usually with hydrogen peroxide, oxygen or chlorine dioxide.