PM Imran launches spring tree plantation drive in Mianwali

Imran Khan is scheduled to attend the annual convocation of the NAMAL University as chief guest later today

Prime Minister Imran Khan launched a spring tree plantation drive titled "Forest Restoration" on Sunday by planting a sapling in Kundian, Mianwali.

وزیراعظم عمران خان آج میانوالی کے نزدیک کندیاں میں موسم بہار 2020 کی شجر کاری مہم کا آغاز کریں گے ۔

موجودہ شجرکاری مہم کا مقصد جنگلات کی بحالی اور دشت شدتی کو کنٹرول کرنا ہے

اسی مناسبت سے آج شروع کی جانے والی شجرکاری مہم کا عنوان جنگلات کی بحالی رکھا گیا ہے #PMImranKhan pic.twitter.com/o2piGDTzRG

— Prime Minister's Office (@PakPMO) February 23, 2020

Addressing a gathering at the launch ceremony, Imran urged people to preserve forests to protect the future of the country. He said it was a Sunnah of Holy Prophet Muhammad (pbuh).

He criticised the previous governments in Punjab for neglecting education and health sectors and said reiterated his administration’s goal to make Pakistan a welfare state. “A country progresses when it spends on its underprivileged.”

Imran said at least 500,000 families were given health cards under the government’s flagship healthcare programme. He added that the government is planning to introduce a subject of Tree Plantation in the curriculum across the country. Imran said the youth has a major role to play in making the tree plantation drive a success.

The premier is also scheduled to attend the annual convocation of the NAMAL University as chief guest.

If PM Imran is to be believed, trees give out oxygen even at night

The plantation drive is part of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government's 10 Billion Tree Tsunami Programme to restore forests. The government aims to plants 10 billion trees in five years to counter challenges of global warming and deforestation.

The 10 billion tree tsunami project is an ambitious extension of the PTI government's billion tree tsunami drive in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa which cost nearly $169 million.

At the launch of the programme in 2018, PM Imran had stressed that enhancing forest cover was crucial since Pakistan would be the seventh most affected country by global warning. "It is a fight for life and death," he maintained.

Tackling climate change has been a top priority of the Imran-led government with the premier taking special interest in plantation drives.

The Global Climate Risk Index placed Pakistan on fifth place as the most affected from 1999 to 2018 in its annual report for 2020.

According to World Wild Fund (WWF), Pakistan contributes less than one per cent to the global greenhouse gas emissions but it remains one of the worst affected countries by climate change and continues to experience extreme weather patterns like floods, droughts and heat waves, which is impacting food and water security along with livelihoods of millions.

"The situation is further exacerbated due to lack of resilience to deal with natural disasters, weak governance, and mismanagement of natural resources," it add. "As a result, Pakistan continues to experience human and economic losses worth billions of dollars."

Pakistan lost an average of 43,000 hectares of forests – equal to half the size of Islamabad - every year between 2000 and 2010, according to WWF Pakistan.

With only 2 per cent of its forest cover remaining, the country’s deforestation rate is the highest in Asia, the environmental group said.

 

This is a developing story and will be updated accordingly.