• 500m trees being planted in ongoing campaign
• Imran hails local manufacturing of EVMs

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan will inaugurate the world’s biggest Miyawaki urban forest in Lahore on Monday (today) under the 10 Billion Tree Tsunami project.

The forest has been developed on over 100 kanals having a total of 165,000 plants that will grow 10 times quicker than in a normal forest owing to the unique Miyawaki technique. It uses specialised land preparation as well as indigenous varieties with varying growth rates to produce fast growing urban forests.

Another 53 Miyawaki forests are being grown in different parts of Lahore to create sinks for carbon as well as for better pollution abatement in the city. All have been geo-tagged to monitor their growth and development.

“Prime Minister Imran Khan is trying to grow back the lungs of Lahore and revive it as the city of gardens that it once was,” a press release said. About 500 million trees are being planted across the country under the ongoing monsoon plantation campaign, which is the largest ever drive.

Prime Minister Khan congratulated Minister for Science and Technology Shibli Faraz and his team on the indigenously-made electronic voting machines (EVMs).

Referring to his recent inspection of locally-manufactured EVM, the prime minister posted on his Twitter account: “Looks like finally we will have elections in Pakistan where all contestants will accept the results.”

Meanwhile, the government on Sunday claimed to have contained the Covid-19 pandemic due to its sagacious strategy “that not has only protected people from the fatal infection but also kept the wheels of the economy moving”.

President Dr Arif Alvi and Prime Minister Imran Khan both lauded what they called “outstanding and dedicated work” of the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) in devising a successful strategy to check the spread of the deadly virus.

In his tweet, the president said the forum was a unique platform set up by Prime Minister Imran Khan which proved its worth by successfully planning to contain the pandemic and bringing Pakistan to the forefront of the comity of nations for its smart lockdowns.

PM Khan tweeted that the NCOC had proved a linchpin in the country’s Covid-19 response strategy, which was also appreciated by the international community.

“Our Covid 19 response strategy has been appreciated by the world and with the blessings of Allah has protected Pakistan from the worst effects of Covid. I want to pay tribute to the NCOC team which through its dedicated work has been the linchpin of our Covid response strategy,” he said on Twitter.

Earlier, Minister for Planning and Development Asad Umar had shared a video documentary titled Azm-i-Alishan on his twitter account, highlighting NCOC’s efforts and the nation’s response to the global pandemic.

Published in Dawn, August 9th, 2021