British HC a day earlier had posted picture of littered hills
Zubair Qureshi
Deputy Commissioner (DC) of the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) Muhammad Hamza Shafqaat on Saturday launched a drive to remove litter and garbage from the scenic Margalla Hills and in this campaign he is assisted by civil society and different volunteers group.
The Deputy Commissioner’s initiative is being lauded by the residents of Islamabad and they are posting pictures of the young officer of Islamabad on social media saying he is doing exemplary work.
The deputy commissioner took this step a day after the High Commissioner of the United Kingdom (UK) Dr Christian Turner did the same posting his picture on the Margallas in which he was carrying two garbage-filled bags with the caption: “Another Friday morning walk, another two bags of litter, another two bags of litter.”
Although the UK envoy’s highlight of the Islamabad garbage didn’t go well with a few but largely people thanked him for drawing attention towards this collective public responsibility.
“You have pointed out a right thing, Excellency, as we need to learn our collective public responsibility not to spread litter around whenever we go out for a picnic or get together,” said a social media user.
However some posts were also reflective of the garbage-filled parks of London and the UK high commissioner was criticized for highlighting only the dark or negative side of the picture.
However, the federal capital’s Deputy Commissioner and his team took it as a timely message and he along with his team of volunteers and the ICT staff went out for “cleanliness drive.”
“We will utilize this lockdown period in the days of Covid-19 for this purpose and will organize teams to clean up our hills and the countryside,” said he while talking to Pakistan Observer on Saturday.
To a question whether this campaign was planned after the UK high commissioner uploaded the litter-filled pictures, he said the campaign was planned before that.
“We keep doing this off and on and it is not the first time that we are doing this kind of cleanliness drive,” said Hamza.
He appreciated the efforts of Dr Christian Turner for picking up litter and drawing public attention towards this important issue.
Not only DC of Islamabad, Christian Turner’s effort was appreciated by celebrities and people from all walks of life.
Former cricket star and sports commentator, Wasim Akram, responded saying, “Now this is really embarrassing. Where are we heading? And thanks Mr Turner for doing this almost every week.”
