Prime Minister Imran Khan will launch the country’s largest tree plantation campaign today (Sunday), with a target of planting 3.5 million saplings across the country, according to Radio Pakistan.
In a tweet on Saturday, the premier had asked members of parliament, the chief ministers of all the provinces and volunteers from the Corona Relief Tiger Force to participate in the plantation drive, which is being carried out on Tiger Force Day.
“The target is 35 lakh trees in a day though we will try to exceed it,” the premier had said.
Chinese Ambassador Yao Jing, Azerbaijan Ambassador Ali Alizada and Turkish Ambassador Ihsan Mustafa Yurdaku also participated in the drive by planting saplings at their respective embassies.
Speaking at a press conference on Saturday, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Climate Change Malik Amin Aslam had said that one million Tiger Force volunteers will plant 3.5 million indigenous fruit and non-fruit tree saplings along with the climate change ministry and provincial forest departments.
He had added that two million saplings will be planted in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 1.2 million in Punjab, 303,646 in Azad Kashmir, 57,000 in Balochistan and 15,000 in Gilgit-Baltistan.
There have been 682 events organised across the country. NGOs and international NGOs, educational institutions and local communities will also participate.
Punjab CM launches tree plantation drive
Earlier today, Punjab Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar launched the plantation drive in the province by planting a sapling at an artificial forest at Shadman Market in Lahore.
According to Radio Pakistan, the chief minister said that the PTI government was committed to completing the target of planting ten billion trees in the country by 2023.
He said that Pakistan is facing the challenge of climate change as well as the Covid-19 pandemic. Therefore, timely steps are needed to provide a healthy environment to the people, the report quoted him as saying.
He added that the provincial government had organised 520 ceremonies in different cities and towns to mark Tiger Force Day.
Plantation drive launched in KP
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Mahmood Khan also inaugurated the campaign in the province by planting a sapling in Peshawar.
Speaking on the occasion, he said that the target was to plant two million trees in the province. He added that participating in the campaign was not new for the people of the province. “In the past five years, we have planted 1.2 billion saplings,” he said.
However, the plantation drive did not go quite as smoothly in Khyber district’s Bara tehsil where citizens staged a protest.
After the district administration inaugurated the campaign, local elders gathered at the site and said that the drive had been launched on their land, claiming that the government wished to deprive them of their land.
They attacked district administration officials, Tiger Force volunteers and uprooted saplings. The KP chief minister also took notice of the incident.
Speaking to Dawn.com, a district administration official said that there was a dispute between two powerful tribes over the ownership of the land. “One of the parties was present when the campaign was inaugurated, while the other was unaware about the drive and uprooted the saplings,” he said.
Opposition invited to participate
Special Assistant to Prime Minister (SAPM) on Youth Affairs Usman Dar had also urged opposition parties to express solidarity and plant trees with the Tiger Force.
Addressing a press conference in Lahore on Saturday, he had particularly invited opposition parties leaders Shehbaz Sharif, Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, Murad Ali Shah, Khawaja Asif and Ahsan Iqbal to join hands with the government and plant saplings.
He had said the Tiger Force would create history by planting two million trees in a day and added that some 350,000 Tiger Force youth had performed duties during the coronavirus pandemic. (Dawn news)
