President, PM urge united action against escalating climate threats

ISLAMABAD: President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif emphasized the need for a collective response from citizens to climate change through the advancement of the ‘Green Pakistan Programme’, as erratic climatic patterns were bringing disasters to the country, most recently in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where flash floods triggered by cloudbursts caused heavy losses.

“At this critical time, when climate change has already brought destruction to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and other parts of the country through floods and cloudbursts, we must act decisively to plant more and more trees,” the president emphasised in his message on the occasion of the Monsoon tree plantation campaign.

The president said their collective response must be to work for advancing the Green Pakistan Programme, a national initiative to expand forest cover, rehabilitate degraded lands, restore the balance of nature, and promote nature-based solutions.

In this plantation campaign, the president urged all citizens to take part in this noble cause and plant saplings to build a greener, cleaner, and more prosperous Pakistan for generations to come.

President Zardari said the 18th of August marked the launch of a nationwide tree plantation drive at a time when Pakistan faced the harsh realities of climate change.

He further observed that trees were the lifeline of the environment and one of the strongest defenses against climate change, adding they cleaned the air they breathed, enriched the soil that fed them, regulated their climate, conserved their precious water resources, and provided shelter to countless species of life.

Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif said the government of Pakistan was committed to the new tree plantation campaign by utilizing all available means and natural solutions in order to increase the proportion of forests and soil fertility under its Green Pakistan Programme.

In a message on the occasion of Monsoon Tree Plantation Campaign, he said, “Let us unite in this national tree plantation campaign and make it a success in a systematic manner so that a green, healthy, clean and prosperous Pakistan can be our destiny and that of our future generations.”

“On the launch of the Monsoon Tree Plantation Campaign in Pakistan, I urge all my dear countrymen to develop a sense of responsibility to fulfil this important national, environmental and climate duty,” he remarked.

The prime minister said the government was observing the monsoon tree plantation campaign under different themes this year to highlight the importance of tree plantation and the role of different segments of society.

He reminded that the recent monsoon season’s exceptional rainfall and the destruction caused by flash floods and the loss of life and property had once again shown that climate change mitigation measures were crucial for Pakistan.