Volunteers plant saplings at Regi Model Township, Peshawar, on the World Forest Day. — White Star
Volunteers plant saplings at Regi Model Township, Peshawar, on the World Forest Day. — White Star

PESHAWAR: About 100,000 saplings were planted by the youth during a plantation drive entitled ‘one tree, one life’ inaugurated by PTI chairman Imran Khan in Regi Model Township here on Monday.

One student would be planting one sapling under the initiative, said Imran Khan. He said that it was a great initiative of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government and it should be implemented by the federal government in the entire country.

Mr Khan said that planting and growing more trees would bring a better environmental impact in the country. He said that it was alarming that Pakistan was ranked 8th in the global warming index. Planting trees could help to solve the issue, he added.

“Pakistan can become a desert if we don’t plant trees. We need to make a green Pakistan for our children,” said the PTI chief.


Imran inaugurates ‘one tree, one life’ drive in Regi Model Township


Officials of forest department said on the occasion that by Dec 2017, the province would achieve the target of planting one billion saplings. The forest department would plant 160 million saplings by the end of the year and thus the number of planted trees would reach 500 million by the year’s end in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, they said.

Adviser to Chief Minister on Environment Ishtiaq Urmer said that daily 700,000 saplings were being planted and so far 110,000 saplings were planted in that one location, which looked like a record in the history of the country.

Students of various schools participated in the plantation drive.

Meanwhile, the volunteers, who had been painting walls starting from Hayatabad, successfully concluded the first phase of “Rang De Peshawar” beautification initiative by making colourful designs on the walls near Board Bazaar.

Youth including university girls and boys had been painting colourful slogans, designs and images on walls under ‘Rang De Peshawar’ drive, launched about two weeks ago.

The young artists had caught attention of the people and motorists passing by but failed to get attention of Imran Khan, who was supposed to come to the concluding phase of the drive at University Road near Board Bazaar.

Imran Khan did not stop by on his way back from the plantation campaign in Regi Model Township, according to the officials, due to security reasons.

However, girls and boys, who had been facing a bit of harassment, did not mind what was going on around them as they kept doing their amazing colourful work passionately as the convoy of the PTI chairman passed by.

The students kept painting the walls as the cultural music played on and smoke-emitting wagons, rickshaws and cars moved slowly on the road.

“Some people had been calling us white-wash people and an elderly guy even expressed his displeasure at girls, who were painting walls,” said Tariq, a young volunteer.

He said that such criticism did not dent their spirits as they were actually out to do some good work for their city.

“I have covered my face due to the pollution but mostly due to the people, who stop and stare. I have proved that veil doesn’t stop us from coming out to do something good,” said Qainaat, a student of University of Peshawar, who volunteered for ‘Rang De Peshawar” drive.

Her classmate Habiba Hayat said that Peshawar used to be a city of flowers but its walls were dirty and ugly. “We want to restore some of its past beauty by brining colour on walls around the city,” she said.

Amir Farooq, another volunteer, said that all he wanted was for Peshawar to look beautiful so he had volunteered for ‘Rang De Peshawar’.

Amjad Khan said that the designs were approved and around 20 to 30 students of Iqra Univerisity and University of Peshawar had volunteered for it. People appreciate how dreary looking walls have been made colourful with little effort of the youth.

Abdul Basit, director of culture department, said that in the next phase walls near Aman Chowk would be painted with beautiful colours and designs but he said that residents of the city also needed to look after and keep the walls and city clean.

The youth had painted on the walls slogans like “Pakhair Raghlay” (Welcome to Peshawar), ‘Unity, Faith and Discipline’, designs from historic Sethi House, some sports images and other depicting the culture and beauty of the city.

Published in Dawn, March 22nd, 2016

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