15,000 saplings donated for Clean and Green Pakistan Drive

Islamabad : Nurseries situated at Kurri Road which are part of Horticulture Enterprises Co-operatives (HORTICO) organised a reception at a Kurri Road nursery here Friday to donate 15,000 saplings for Clean and Green Pakistan Drive 2020. Horticulturist Malik Naseem Awan conducted the proceedings.

Minister of State for Climate Change Zartaj Gul who reached the venue before time thanked the nurseries for the donation. She congratulated Nafeesa Khattak for having so many environmentalists in the city who are contributing in greening Islamabad. She claimed that Imran Khan succeeded in his environmental agenda and put him in the world top five leaders in this respect. She also referred to 10 billion tree Tsunami. She said that Pakistan is right on its SDG targets. She regretted that the cities are becoming concrete jungles. She also lamented setting up restaurants in the Margala Hills. She said that a committee under Nayyar Ali Dada is working on environment for various cities.

She highlighted the importance of nurseries. She said that the 1.27 billion rupees were allocated for tree plantations. She asked women to involve in Nursery business as a 15 per cent plants will be purchased from women entrepreneurs.

Mian Iqbal Hasan, owner of the oldest nursery in the Federal Metropolis, said that we are working here since 1962 and requested to let the nurseries remain flourishing which CDA tried in the past to demolish.

It may be mentioned here that some CDA officials tried to demolish nurseries in order to include it in CDA’s lucrative Park Enclave four years ago.

Special Assistant to Prime Minster on CDA Affairs Ali Nawaz Awan said that we cannot launch or sustain a plant drive without nurseries. He said that we are working on either to retain or relocate nurseries in the Federal Metropolis. He said we are planting a million tree in Islamabad. Realising that normally trees thus planted are not taken care of, he asked the nurseries to keep a check on their donated trees and lodge complaints if any, to his ministry. MNA Raja Khurram Nawaz who brought ‘dholak’ with him to mark his entry claimed that no leader in the world chose Climate Change to raise voice for except Prime Minister Imran Khan. He asked MNA Nafeesa Khattak to take up the issue of preserving nurseries at Kurri Road with CDA.

Naseem Awan said that the average earth temperature rose to 1.5 degree centigrade in the past 300 years and if it increases 0.5 degree more, which is possible in the next two decades, many island countries and port cities will submerge into occasions. He exhorted the world to take preventive action.