150mn trees to be planted under ‘Plant for Pakistan’ in 2019
MADIHA ASIF madiha@timesofoman.com
MUSCAT: About 150 million trees will be planted across Pakistan at the Spring 2019 Tree Plantation drive, according to the Ministry of Climate Change of Pakistan.
A campaign to plant tree saplings under the “10-billion tree tsunami” campaign in Pakistan started last year in September with Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan planting the first sapling under this initiative in Haripur, a district in Hazara, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP).
This year, PM Khan kicked off the Spring Tree Plantation Campaign at Baloki, a district in Nankana Sahib, Punjab.
“I am delighted at the efforts being undertaken at Nankana Sahib today. We will continue to reclaim land from land mafias all across Pakistan and utilise it for afforestation,” PM Khan wrote on his official twitter handle.
Pollution
He continues saying that: “We are launching our #Plant4Pakistan programme and reclaiming mafia encroached land, converting it into forests and wild life parks for our future generations to fight climate change and pollution.”
Khan added that the government is set to plant ten billion trees all over the country during the next five years aimed at eliminating pollution and making Pakistan green. He has urged the youth to widely participate in the plantation campaign to make it a success to materialise the dream of green and pollution-free Pakistan.
Moreover, continuing on the same efforts, Mir Jam Kamal, Chief Minister of Balochistan, inaugurated the Spring Tree Plantation Campaign by planting a sapling at Chief Minister Secretariat in Quetta as well.
Plan
The 10-billion tree tsunami plan will be implemented in the next five years as Pakistan aims to fight climate change in the country.
Last year in 2017, during the launch of ‘Plant for Pakistan’ initiative, PM Khan asked everyone to join this drive so together they could counter the twin threats of climate change and pollution confronting the future generations.
Talking about the campaign earlier, Chaudhary Fawad Hussain, Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting said on Twitter: “Pakistan is one of the seven countries most affected by global warming. Let’s play our role in saving future of our coming generations.”