National Assembly Standing Committee on Climate Change has expressed serious concern and resentment over poor performance of forest departments of the provincial governments and directed them to submit comprehensive reports about plantation of trees and set targets in this regard.
The committee met with Munaza Hassan in the chair at Parliament House on Wednesday. The committee discussed the target of plantation under "The Billion Tree Tsunami Project" and issues relating to plastic shopping bags, national parks of Islamabad, Islamabad Wildlife Management Board and other issues.
The officials of forest departments of the provincial governments could not give satisfactory answers to the questions of the members of the committee. Even, it was exposed in the meeting that huge figures of plantation of tress are shown in the documents but nothing is on the ground.
The committee also recommended the forest departments of the provinces and Ministry of Climate Change to involve the local members of the national and provincial assemblies on the plantation process.
Committee member Dr Haider Ali Khan of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) told the committee that many trees are being cut in his areas and he had informed the concerned authority but it did not take any action.
Minister for Climate Change Zartaj Gul asked Khyber Pakhtunkhwa inspector general of forests to visit the areas along with Dr Haider Ali Khan and his team where trees are being cut and submit a report to the committee.
Committee Chairperson Munaza Hasan sought a comprehensive report about how many trees were cut and how many trees were planted. She said that forecast departments should coordinate with concerned representatives of national and provincial assembles for plantation of trees.
The committee was told that a total of 10 million trees including 0.2 million fruit trees were planted last year.
Zartaj Gul said that she was informed that 800,000 trees were planted in her constituency but when she visited the site, there were only eight plants.
When the members of the committee questioned about the achievement of target and detail of plantation in current year, an official of Punjab Forest department could not give satisfactory answer. Similarly, an official of KP forest department could not satisfy the committee while no official from Sindh participated in the meeting.
The committee expressed serious concern and resentment at this situation and directed the officers to present a comprehensive report at district level in the next meeting.
However, an official of AJK forest department said that 4.5 million trees have been planted so far and the target is assigned to plant 20.5 million trees for four years. The committee also recommended involving agriculture universities and youth for plantation.
The committee also discussed the issue of allocating National Park's land for the construction of restaurants in the middle of Margallah Hills National Park premises, causing immense loss to the wildlife and creating air pollution.
While discussing the issue about regularization of the employees of Islamabad Wildlife Management, the secretary Ministry of Climate Change told the committee that a board of this organization would be established in one month and services rules would be formulated in next three months.
The committee also discussed the ban on plastic shaping bags in Islamabad and recommended to provide alternative facility to the people.
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