PM Imran shares vision for 'green' future

Arable land being eaten up by housing societies, will have grave consequences for our food security: Imran

Prime Minister Imran Khan on Saturday shared his vision for Pakistan's urban centres and said his government would encourage vertical construction to increase green spaces and protect the country's arable land.

My vision for our future cities: to allow buildings to rise vertically & allow for more green spaces as Pak is one of the the most environmentally-threatened countries. Avoiding large sprawling built-up areas will also allow easier provision of amenities to our urban dwellers. pic.twitter.com/pYLgjpeHMc

— Imran Khan (@ImranKhanPTI) March 2, 2019

"My vision for our future cities: to allow buildings to rise vertically and allow for more green spaces as Pak is one of the the most environmentally-threatened countries," the premier said in a series of posts on Twitter.

"Avoiding large sprawling built-up areas will also allow easier provision of amenities to our urban dwellers."

He elaborated further in a second tweet: "Our arable land is being eaten up by housing societies and has grave consequences for our food security in the future."

"Also, we are in the process of making laws to allow buildings, built to international safety standards, to go as high as in other cities across the world."

Our arable land is being eaten up by housing societies and has grave consequences for our food security in the future. Also, we are in the process of making laws to allow buildings, built to international safety standards, to go as high as in other cities across the world. https://t.co/bvKcFpmF1U

— Imran Khan (@ImranKhanPTI) March 2, 2019

Earlier this month, PM Imran approved rules facilitating the construction of high-rise buildings in Islamabad.

With his decision, the Capital Development Authority (CDA) received an executive nod to formulate rules and regulations — apart from amending existing ones — for the construction of high-rises in the city and to re-designate existing buildings accordingly.

Imran wants CDA to review rules for high-rises in Islamabad

In the meeting held on February 12, PM Imran was briefed about the existing rules and regulations regarding the construction of high-rise buildings in the federal capital.

Noting the growing population of the federal capital — which has more than doubled over the past 20 years from 805,235 in 1998 to 2.07 million in 2017 — Imran said there was a need to fulfill the economic and residential requirements of the people, while protecting its limited and fast-shrinking green areas.

The premier had said that high-rises should replace slums in the federal capital and called for a strategy to drafted at the earliest.

He added that there was a need to provide investment opportunities to overseas Pakistanis, particularly in the real estate business.

It was decided in the meeting that the aviation division and the CDA would meet over the next ten days to identify areas where high-rise buildings cannot be allowed due to security or other reasons.