ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Information, Broadcasting and National Heritage Pervaiz Rashid said on Thursday that the statement of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan about the plantation of 100 million saplings in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was just an “addition to his false claims”.

In a statement, Mr Rashid said that the PTI leader had not given any detail about the immense workforce required for the job, mode of purchase and transportation of such huge number of saplings.

“Either there was no existence of these trees or the resources of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government were being plundered under the garb of 100 million trees,” he said.

Also read: PTI declares war against timber smugglers in KP

He urged the media to verify Imran Khan’s claims and asked the PTI chief to arrange a visit of parliamentarians, media personnel and members of civil society to plantation sites.

The minister also asked Imran Khan to make public the source of purchase of 100m saplings, its cost as well as the expenditure incurred on the plantation process. He said the plantation 100m trees seemed to have been carried out so secretly that even the people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa did not know about it.

Published in Dawn, December 4th, 2015