‘Govt to establish 12 national parks’

Islamabad : Adviser to Prime Minister on Climate Change Malik Amin Aslam Thursday said that the government will announce ‘protected area incentive’ within next two weeks to establish 12 national parks throughout the country.

Speaking in the National Assembly, he said, ‘The Prime Minister will announce the programme within two weeks. “The Adviser said national park service will also be available in these parks. The incentive will be to provide jobs to thousands of people. The areas would be protected to revive the wildlife in its natural habitat and conserve the rich biodiversity of the unique ecosystem in the Kala Chitta Mountain Range,” he added.

He said that a Green Stimulus Programme had also been launched to provide job opportunities to daily wagers and poor people during coronavirus as per vision of the Prime Minister.

He said under the programme about 84,000 people would be provided jobs in the country.

He further said his ministry will create job opportunities for 600, 000 people till next year.

He said that the government had announced Rs five billion for the Climate Change Ministry while about 300 million dollars had been received by his ministry through foreign assistance due to its incentives to deal with the climate change challenges.

The adviser said that about 1.18 billion trees had been planted with survival rate of 85 percent in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

He said that the forest cover in the province had been increased by four percent.

Under the billion tree programme, the tress will be planted across the country including Gilgit Baltistan and Azad Jammu Kashmir, he added.

Amin Alam said that all the international institutions had appreciated and acknowledged the work done by him.

He said that cheap and environment friendly electrical vehicles manufactured by Pakistan would be in the market soon as policy had been approved by the cabinet.

“Our purpose is to motivate people to use electrical vehicles to improve the quality of the air our children breathe in, moreover the electrical vehicles will be economical as well,” he added.

About the policy to deal with the coronavirus, he said that Rs100 billion had been allocated for this purpose in the budget.

He said that billions of rupees had been distributed among the poor people under ‘Ehsaas Emergency Cash’ programme throughout the country in a transparent manner.

He said that the government had given special focus to agriculture sector in the budget as it was the main source of employment for the people.

He said that Prime Minister Imran Khan was effectively handling all the challenges confronting the country.