MANSEHRA: PML-N Senator retired Lt-Gen Salahuddin Tirmazi on Thursday praised the PTI government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa for taking revolutionary measures to check illegal cutting of trees.

“The PTI government seems to have failed to deliver on all fronts but I admit it launched revolutionary steps to check deforestation, which is a great job for environment,” he told a function organised in connection with the launch of the tree plantation campaign in Kunhar Watershed Management Division here.

The PML-N lawmaker, who earlier planted a sapling, said timber, which was a ‘green gold’, changed the fate of its smugglers by playing an important role in making them politicians and ministers.

“The world faces severe pollution and environmental issues due to the rapid industrialisation but in our province (KP), we confront pollution and environmental issues due to the rapid deforestation,” he said. Mr Tirmazi said only five percent of the country’s land was covered by forests though the world had 31 percent forest area on the whole.

“The launch of the Tsunami billion tree programme in the province by the PTI government is indeed a great step. However, its targets should be achieved with zeal and patriotism,” he said.

Tirmazi seeks stricter action against timber smugglers

Mr Tirmazi said the government should further tighten noose around timber smugglers to protect forests, which were a big source of income to the provincial economy.

Earlier, officials of the forest department said under the Tsunami tree plantation programme, 10 million trees would be planted in the district.

Mr Tirmazi later told reporters that Wapda should immediately stop the prolonged and unscheduled loadshedding in Mansehra, where the people were subjected to the excessive power outages for many weeks.

“I have already taken up the issue of the excessive power outages in the Senate. Water and power minister Khawaja Mohammad Asif had called a meeting on Jan 11 in Islamabad to discuss the issue of unscheduled loadshedding,” he said.

JI THREATENS AGITATION: The Jamaat-i-Islami has threatened to launch agitation against the PML-N-led federal government over the prolonged and unscheduled loadshedding in Mansehra district. The threat was issued during a JI meeting held in Oghi here on Thursday.

JI leader Hafiz Younas, who chaired the meeting, warned his party would agitate against the federal government if the excessive power cuts in the district didn’t end.

He said Wapda had been subjected the people of Mansehra to loadshedding for 15-16 hours a day.

“We have been informing Wapda for a couple of months to end prolonged and unscheduled loadshedding in the district but it has given a deaf ear to our demand. Now we’re so agitated that we will take to the streets to force Wapda into meeting our genuine demand,” he said.

Published in Dawn, January 8th, 2016