Governor appreciates services of Ismaili community for cleaner environment

Sindh Governor Imran Ismail has thanked the Ismaili community members in Pakistan for actively taking part in the prime minister’s drive for planting 10 billion trees across the country.

The governor expressed appreciation for the Ismaili community as he addressed the inaugural ceremony of the ‘Global Ismaili Civic Day’ on Sunday. He appreciated the fact that the Ismaili community had launched a countrywide tree plantation initiative with the title, ‘Trees for Life’.

He also thanked volunteers belonging to the Ismaili community who actively took part in the cleanliness initiatives under the Clean and Green Pakistan campaign. The governor planted a sapling at the ceremony to kick off the plantation campaign of the Ismaili community in the country. He said the campaign was part of a global drive of the community for uplifting the standards of living of the people without discriminating them on the basis of faith, gender, and ethnicity. The global campaign of the Ismaili community was meant to serve humanity at large, he remarked.

Ismail said the campaign was according to the basic principles of Islam that stood for peace, empathy and serving the downtrodden and destitute people. The participants of the ceremony were informed that 20,000 volunteers of the Ismaili community in 18 countries of the world would render a total of 100,000 man-hours of voluntary service to mark Global Ismaili Civic Day.

In Pakistan, the community was conducting tree plantation and cleanliness drives as part of the global drive, the ceremony was told. Different activities would be held in the country to conserve the natural environment and spread awareness among the public about the need for collective social responsibility in this regard. These activities included a virtual quiz competition and a national art exhibition titled ‘Aks’.

The event was told that over 6,000 volunteers belonging to the girl guides and boy scouts of the community had taken part in the trash collection campaign, including safe disposal of plastic waste, at 70 different places in the country.

Cancer hospital

Meanwhile, the governor at another event said work had been started to establish a modern cancer hospital in Karachi under the aegis of the Shaukat Khanum Memorial Trust. He stated this as he addressed as the chief guest at the closing ceremony of the Classic Car rally held at the Governor House.

He said the under-construction Shaukat Khanum Cancer Hospital and Research Centre in Karachi would provide most modern treatment and diagnoses services to cancer patients. Ismail said the cancer hospital would serve cancer patients not just of Karachi but also from other districts of Sindh and Southern Balochistan.

He appreciated the services of the organisers of the class car exhibition for raising awareness and collecting funds for providing treatment services to cancer patients. The governor was informed on the occasion that all funds collected from the exhibition would be used to carry out research on treatment of cancer.