PESHAWAR, June 7: NWFP’s senior minister Sirajul Haq has said the provincial government has increased budget for environment and afforestation to two times their current level, so as to make the environment free from pollution.

He said two new divisions of forests and wildlife had been established, one each at Bannu and Malakand. A decision had also been taken to include environment in the educational curricula.

He was addressing a book-launching ceremony held to coincide with the World Environment Day at Pakistan Academy for Rural Development, Peshawar, last evening.

The book, titled “Conservation and Islam”, has been compiled by Dr Qibla Ayaz in collaboration with the IUCN and WWF.

Sirajul Haq said the MMA government felt the importance of environment, and the problems and threats faced by the people due to ever-increasing pollution in the region. Precisely for this reason, it was taking solid and practical steps to tackle them.

However, he called upon the ulema and teaching community to also play their due role in this respect side by side with the efforts of the government and volunteer organizations to make such endeavours a success.

He said conservation of nature and making water, air and ground resources pollution-free was purely “our own problem” and “we could more successfully combat this challenge by following the golden principles of Islam.”

He said the importance of environment and nature in Islam could be judged from the fact that our Holy Prophet Hazrat Muhammad (PBUH) strictly forbade inflicting any damage to standing trees, crops and water as well as all kinds of food reservoirs.—APP