Prime Minister Imran Khan on Monday launched the ‘Plant for Pakistan’ drive and asked every Pakistani citizen to play their role in saving the future generations.
Addressing the monsoon plantation ceremony, PM Imran introduced August 18 as plantation day and urged every Pakistani to contribute towards the cause and plant at least two saplings each.
“Today, we will have to take a decision to save the future of our generation,” said PM Imran.
The premier expressed the resolve to fight climate change by planting trees across the country to protect the environment.
“We will be able to improve the climate of the entire country as we did in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P),” said the PM while sharing the benefits of tree plantation.
PM Imran also discussed the increasing air pollution, adding that the plantation of trees will help curb pollution.
“Deforestation is contributing to increasing pollution. Only five per cent of forests that were planted in 1990 remain standing today,” lamented the PM.
“By turning Pakistan green, we can emerge as an exemplary state. Our Clean and Green Pakistan initiative in K-P has received global acclamation. The Forest and Agriculture (FAO) Department based in Rome has acknowledged KP efforts of increasing six per cent forest coverage. We did it with dedication, and with fewer funds,” said the premier.
Shedding light on the efforts of the K-P government to achieve the objective, the PM shared that 10 officials of the forest department had embraced martyrdom to uproot the most powerful timber mafia prevalent in KP.
He appealed to the people to plant more trees in order to make the country green.
“Plantation is not an option, but a need,” said the premier.
Speaking on the occasion, the prime minister also said that it is the responsibility of every Pakistani to make the tree plantation campaign successful and that officials from the army will actively participate in the drive.
“We will fight climatic change and grow trees in the next four years,” said the PM adding that new national parks will also be built.
Earlier this year in July, the federal government had set a target of planting 140 million saplings across the country during a campaign inaugurated by the prime minister in the first week of August.
The monsoon plantation drive was kicked off by PM Imran planting a sapling.
Earlier this year, the Ministry of Climate Change planted around 95.4 million saplings across the country under the “Plant for Pakistan” programme.
Steel mill’s revival
Meanwhile, Imran Khan directed the Ministry of Trade and Industry to accelerate efforts for reviving the Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM).
Chairing a review meeting on progress in revival of Pakistan Steel Mills on Monday, he said it is a priority of the government to save Pakistan Steel Mills from losses and restore it.
He said destruction of a profit-making organization shows maladministration and negligence on part of the previous governments.
The meeting was briefed about the current situation of Pakistan Steel Mills, losses caused due to closure of the mill, and progress made on the decisions taken by the present government for revival of the Steel Mills.
The Prime Minister was apprised that Pakistan Steel Mills was a profit-making organization by 2008, but it started suffering losses in 2009, and it was completely closed in June 2015.
The meeting was told that the organization continuously remained in loss, and the government is bearing 370 million rupees monthly expenditures under salaries of the employees, and so far, Steel Mills has outstanding amount of Rs 217 billion.
