IUCN asked to hold trilateral conference on smog

Islamabad: Federal Minister for Climate Change Mushahidullah Khan on Thursday urged the International Union of Conservation of Nature, Pakistan and India to hold a trilateral conference to discuss smog issue.

He also discussed the proposal of establishing a information centre on snow leopard in Pakistan. The minister was talking to regional director of the International Union of Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Aban Markal, who paid a courtesy call on him here.

Ms Markal agreed to conduct bilateral conference and providing technical support like movies books on snow leopard for information centre. The meeting was attended by Romeena Khursheed Alam, climate change parliamentary secretary, secretary Khizer Hayat, Inspector General Forest Syed Mehmood Nasir and country Director IUCN.

Also in the day, the minister chaired the second meeting of Houbara Bustard Endowment Fund and Migratory Birds to discuss the financial rules. He told provincial governments' representatives that the government was serious about protecting Houbara Bastard species in Pakistan and the creation of that fund was a proof of it.

"All provinces need to work together to spend this money right directions," he said. The participants discussed the financial rules that were set to get approval from the board. However many technical issues were pointed out in the financial rules as the mechanism of distribution of funds was missing in the rules.

The terminologies used in the document were not defined. It was also pointed out during meeting that third party validation is required to check the number of migratory birds in a particular province. The matter of appointment of fund manager was also discussed. A sub Committee was formulated to resolve all technical issues in the rules.