close
Thursday March 28, 2024

PM launches drive to plant 10 bn trees in five years

Prime Minister Imran Khan on Sunday launched a countrywide drive here to plant 10 billion trees across the country within five years to counter the challenges of global warming and deforestation.

By Muhammad Saleh Zaafir  
September 03, 2018

HARIPUR/ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan on Sunday launched a countrywide drive here to plant 10 billion trees across the country within five years to counter the challenges of global warming and deforestation.

The prime minister was accompanied by Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Mehmood Khan, Adviser on Climate Change Malik Amin Aslam, Special Assistant to PM on Political Affairs Naeemul Haq, and authorities from the forest department.

The prime minister inaugurated the ‘10 Billion Tree Tsunami’ drive by planting a sapling of Deodar specie in the Makhniyal area where he had also kicked off the billion tree tsunami project of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government in 2015. The first day (Sunday) of the drive was observed as ‘Plant for Pakistan Day’ when around 1.5 million saplings would be planted in a single day across the country. He said that he would make Pakistan green through the tree plantation drive.

After launching the drive, the prime minister told the media that Pakistan would be the seventh most affected country by global warming, so enhancing the forest cover was crucial. “This is crucial for the generations to come. This is the fight for life and death,” the prime minister remarked. He said though this plantation season was about to end, the government would keep up striving to make this initiative a success.

The prime minister said the PTI government had planted around 1.18 billion saplings in the KP during the previous term and under this drive, trees would be planted across the country, be it is plains, roadsides or any empty spaces.

To a question, the prime minister said tree plantation was not solely the government’s job rather it was about the whole mankind and the whole nation. Everyone must take part in the campaign to plant trees or the land would turn into a desert as glaciers were already melting owing to global warming.

He said the massive plantation would also help address the challenge of growing pollution in the cities like smog. He said unfortunately timbers worth Rs200 billion were cut down during one decade.

Prime Minister Imran said the government would also make aware the young generation on importance of trees and forests by inculcating the subject in educational curriculum.

Earlier, Adviser Malik Amin Aslam said the government would adopt the KP model to ensure the success of the country’s largest-ever plantation drive. He said around 200 plantation distribution centers had been set up to provide saplings to the people free of charge.

He said excessive plantation was of utmost importance for the country to tackle the challenges of climate change and water shortage.

He said the factors behind the success of billion tree tsunami project were zero tolerance towards timber mafia, effective preservation of forests to allow the regeneration, involvement of private sector and local community.

He said the survival rate of trees in KP had been around 80 percent and hoped that it would be achieved across the country. He said the one billion tree tsunami project had created around 0.5 million jobs and the new drive would generate even more openings.

Amin Aslam said besides enhancing the forest cover, the drive would also help bring green economic development in the country. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Imran Khan chaired a high-level meeting in the PM Office on Sunday in connection with the upcoming month of Muharram.

The government has decided to chalk out foolproof security mechanism on urgent basis and provision of maximum facilities to the pilgrims of holy places abroad, including those who visit Iran, Iraq and other destinations. The decision has been taken during a high echelon meeting here under Prime Minister Imran Khan.

The premier observed that the security of the pilgrims (Zaireen) visiting holy places abroad is a foremost priority and no effort should be spared in providing foolproof security and ensuring proper facilitation of the Zaireen. The prime minister directed that a comprehensive action plan should be chalked out, in consultation with all stakeholders, within 48 hours for the security of Zaireen visiting Iran, Iraq and other holy places during the coming month of Muharram.

The meeting that dealt with the issue of security and facilitation of the pilgrims (Zaireen) at the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) was attended by chief ministers concerned, senior officials of intelligence gathering agencies, law enforcement agencies and other senior officials. Chief Minister Balochistan Jam Kamal Khan, Minister of State for Interior Shahryar Afridi, secretaries to Prime Minister, Interior, Religious Affairs, chief secretary Balochistan and senior government officers were also in attendance.

The PM directed that immigration counters at the Pak-Iran border should be enhanced to facilitate Zaireen in speedy immigration process. He further directed that a permanent mechanism should also be evolved to streamline the entire operations of Zaireen for the future.

In this context, the prime minister directed Minister of State Shahryar Afridi to coordinate with chief minister Balochistan and other stakeholders, including the security forces and Ministry of Religious Affairs, to streamline the process and ensure provision of maximum facilitation to the visiting Zaireen. He further directed that a comprehensive time bound action plan with delineated responsibilities may be submitted for his approval to regulate the matter.

Prime Minister Khan chaired another meeting on Local Government system at the PMO earlier and it was attended by federal ministers, chief ministers of Punjab, Balochistan and KP, provincial ministers, federal and provincial secretaries of relevant departments and senior government officers.

Detailed presentations were made and threadbare discussions followed during the meeting on the local bodies system which was introduced in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa by the PTI government for empowering the people at the grassroots level and the proposed system to be replicated in other provinces.

The prime minister in his remarks said that the transfer of power at grassroot level and empowering people in a real sense is the main plank of the party’s reform agenda. He said that the past, practice of centralisation of power into a few hands and at times into one individual had not only deprived the people of any meaningful say in the government’s affairs but had also stripped the people of their right to have adequate resources for their development.

A high-powered committee was constituted by the Prime Minister Imran for holding in-depth discussions and formulating a proposed structure of the local bodies within one week. The recommendations of the committee would then be scrutinised and presented before the assemblies of the respective provinces for their consideration. The process of finalising recommendations for initiating legislation process should be completed within one month, directed the prime minister.