Development without harming environment stressed

Business community should achieve economic and social development without harming the environment and natural resources. This was observed by speakers at "the fourth annual excellence awards for companies, journalists," organised by the National Forum for Environment and Health (NFEH), held here on Wednesday.
They said that corporate social responsibility was the prime object to achieve sustained growth of the country, and urged the business community to come forward and play their role in making environment-friendly industries and organisations. They said that global warming was increasing and only in Pakistan, the temperature had been risen to 10-degree Celsius during the recent past.
The rising temperature would create scarcity of water in some parts of the country, while causing floods in other places. The imbalance of nature would hurt the growing crops and resultantly the economic activities would come to a standstill, they added.
The speakers said that we should focus on bright future for our upcoming generation while concentrating on better present. Referring to the government efforts to tackle the developmental issues related to the environment, but these efforts were not sufficient, they said. They called upon the private sector to come forward and contribute in a big way to make the country's future bright.
They underlined the private sector's importance and its decisive role in the country's economic growth, which influenced the environmental performance and long-term environmental sustainability.
Those who spoke at the function included NFEH Chairman Dr Kaiser Waheed; Sindh Environment Secretary Mir Hussain Ali; English Biscuit Manufacturers (EBM) General Manager S. Tariq Naeem; Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry's Standing Committee on Environment's Chairman Gulzar Feroz; member of Technical Environment Protection Tribunal Sami-uz-Zaman; NFEH Chief Advisor Zaheer Baig; Saima Beg from IUCN and Director General of Sindh Environment Protection Agency Abdul Malik Ghauri.
On the occasion, NFEH President Naeem Qureshi said the awards were instituted three years ago and had received enthusiastic response from the industry, and added that those awards had become the benchmark for the standards that needed to be followed.
The following companies received the awards: AES Lal Pir, Attock Refinery, BGP (Pakistan) International, EBM, Engro Asahi Polymer and Chemicals, Engro Chemical Pakistan, Engro Vopak Terminal, Habib Oil Mills, Indus Motor Company, Koh-I-Noor Energy, KSB Pumps Company, National Refinery, Nestle Pakistan Ltd, Oil and Gas Development Company, Pak-Arab Refinery, Pakistan Oilfields, Pakistan PTA, Pakistan Refinery, Pakistan State Oil Co, PharmEvo, Shell Pakistan, Siemens Pakistan Engineering Co, Sui Southern Gas Company, Thal Engineering, Tourism Promotion Services and W.M.C.