Senator Faisal Javed claims govt created 500,000 green jobs

Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf’s (PTI) Senator Faisal Javed Khan has claimed that Pakistan has created some 500,000 jobs in the green sector.

Addressing the European parliament at the Asia-Europe Parliamentary Partnership (ASEP) meeting, the senator revealed that Pakistan has emerged as the first country to meet the International Bonn Challenge.

“Pakistan has become the first country to meet the International Bonn Challenge – where we restored over 350,000 hectors land into forests – planted over a billion trees, provided over 13,000 private tree nurseries, boosted local incomes as it created over 500,000 green jobs,” said Javed.

The PTI senator was of the view that his government’s endeavors has been acknowledged by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, where they had given the world a challenge of restoring 150 million hectares of land into forests by 2020 and 350 million hectares of land by 2030.

The senator further said that the government now intends to plant over 10 billion trees across Pakistan. In this regard, he said, on the inaugural day of this campaign 1.5 million trees were planted. "So we do hope that within the next five years, we will be able to plant over 10 billion trees across Pakistan," he added.

Javed, however, admitted that there is a huge challenge ahead, as Pakistan stands with only 2.5 percent of land covered in forest, as compared to the required 25pc of forest land.