In a move to make ‘Green Pakistan’, Prime Minister Imran Khan on Sunday launched a nationwide tree-plantation drive in Haripur near Islamabad, the officials said.
The campaign, as part of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s billion tree ‘Tsunami 2018’ drive, aims to plant 10 billion saplings across the country in the next five years, it said.
Today we launch our tree plantation drive #Plant4Pakistan across the entire country,” he said in a message on Twitter.
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“I want everyone to join this #GreenPakistan drive so we can counter the twin threats of climate change and pollution confronting our future generations,” Khan tweeted.
The government said that 1.5 million saplings were planted on the first day under the initiative.
As part of the ‘Plant 4 Pakistan’ drive, free saplings were distributed at 200 distribution centres across the country, official said.
Talking to media after launching the plantation drive, Khan said that Pakistan would become a desert if timely action was not taken to plant trees.
According to a statement, the purpose of the campaign is to encourage people, communities, organisations, business and industry, civil organisations and government to collectively plant trees and to safeguard the ‘mother earth’.
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According to experts, Pakistan is facing enormous threats of environmental issues.
Meanwhile, a survey conducted by the Sustainable Development Policy Institute ahead of the 2018 poll found that respondents prioritized three key environmental issues: rising temperatures, water shortages, and air pollution.
(With inputs from agencies)
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