LAHORE: Special Assistant to Prime Minister (SAPM) on Youth Affairs Usman Dar has announced that some two million saplings will be planted on the occasion of Tiger Force Day on Sunday (today) in collaboration with the respective district governments and forest departments across the country.

Speaking at a news conference at PID offices on Saturday, flanked by forest department secretary Capt (retired) Muhammad Asif, Mr Dar said Pakistan was facing serious challenges in terms of climate change and being ranked among 10 hot environment countries in the world.

He said Prime Minister Imran Khan would plant saplings in Islamabad, Chief Minister Usman Buzdar in Lahore, Governor Chaudhry Sarwar in Shahdara, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief minister in Peshawar, and the Sindh governor in Karachi. All federal and provincial ministers would also take part in the tree plantation campaign. He said the Tiger Force youth would plant trees from Karachi to Waziristan.

‘Pakistan facing challenges in terms of climate change’

The SAPM invited the opposition parties to express solidarity and plant trees along with the Tiger Force for the cause of Green Pakistan. He particularly invited opposition parties leaders Shahbaz Sharif, Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, Murad Ali Shah, Khawaja Asif and Ahsan Iqbal to join hands with the government and plant saplings in the best interest of the country.

Mr Dar said the Tiger Force’s 154,000 youth would work hand in hand with the Sindh government, if it recognised them. He said there was a great need to plant trees in Sindh. “The whole nation will see that who is planting trees for the cause of Green Pakistan on Sunday (today),” he said.

He said the Tiger Force would create history by planting two million trees in a day and added that some 350,000 Tiger Force youth had performed duties during the coronavirus pandemic.

In Punjab, he said, some 1.2 million saplings be planted at 520 places in coordination with the respective district governments and the forest department. Similarly, some 500,000 saplings be planted at 853 places in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The SAPM said the prime minister would soon be distributing some Rs100 billion among youth, who lost their jobs during the coronavirus pandemic.

Published in Dawn, August 9th, 2020