Staff Reporter
Islamabad
Prime Minister Imran Khan on Monday spoke about the various challenges being faced by Pakistan, lamenting how previous governments had not planned or envisioned where the country would be beyond its five years.
The premier, speaking during the launching ceremony of the Billion Tree Honey Initiative — part of the Clean and Green Pakistan campaign — spoke on several matters, including the biggest challenges that Pakistan faces.
The green Pakistan campaign aims at promoting tree plantation to support the production of honey in the country under the Ten Billion Tree Tsunami Programme.
Addressing the event, Imran Khan said the nation needs to take care of its environment as the forest cover in the country is less than the world’s average forest cover.
“We have polluted our rivers […] The groundwater is also getting polluted,” he said. The prime minister noted how the air quality in Lahore often surpasses the “danger level” and that ultimately, has an adverse impact on the elderly and the children. Explaining the reason behind the bad air quality, he said that it was “an unplanned city” and that in last 10 years, Pakistan has finished over 70% of its forest cover and replaced it with concrete. Talking about the future challenges that Pakistan faces, he said that the country was the fifth-most affected one in the world due to climate change.
Meanwhile, presiding over a meeting of his party leaders and spokespersons, Irman Khan said that the opposition proposed that allegations of corruption of less than Rs1 billion should not come under the NAB’s scope.
Imran Khan said that Jamiat-Ulema-e-Islam-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman has acquired assets beyond means hence he must account for it and “surrender before NAB”.
This was said by the prime minister as he chaired a meeting of party leaders and spokespersons where participants said that PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif and Fazl had made efforts in the past to recognise Israel.
