ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan on Monday launched the Clean Green Pakistan Index (CGPI), the country’s first barometer to measure cleanliness indicators in different cities and promote competition between them.
Major cities in Pakistan, including Lahore, Peshawar and Karachi, have been ranked among the most polluted cities in the world year after year. During Pakistan’s so-called ‘fifth’ smog season – from October to January – the air quality in these cities reaches hazardous levels, with Amnesty International issuing an ‘urgent action warning’ for Lahore last week.
“Every segment of society should become part of this campaign to curb the adverse effects of climate change and protect the future of the country,” Prime Minister Khan said while speaking at the launch ceremony of the index at Jinnah Convention Center.
The prime minister said that air pollution was a silent killer and his government was identifying specific areas in different cities for tree plantation, and added the government would also allocate sufficient funds for the campaign.
“Elected representatives at the village level will be made part of regional level competitions on environmental indicators,” he said, referring to competitions slated to be held among different cities to gauge their performance and allocate funds.
The CGPI has been initially launched for 19 cities including Lahore, Gujranwala, Rawalpindi, Faisalabad, Sargodha, Sahiwal, Multan, Dera Ghazi Khan, Okara and Bahawalpur, and will later be expanded to other cities as well. These cities will be assessed on addressing issues such as safe drinking water, solid waste management, liquid waste management, city beautification, cleanliness of streets, parks, tree plantation, sanitation and community participation.
The initiative is part of the government’s campaign of clean and green Pakistan that includes the plantation of ten billion trees across the country in five years to increase forest cover and curb environmental degradation. According to The Lancet, one of the world’s oldest and most prestigious medical journals, air pollution in Pakistan leads to the deaths of 135,000 people, mostly children, every year.
Prolonged exposure to the toxic air can result in severe health issues including asthma, lung damage, bronchial infections and heart problems and shortens life expectancy – putting at risk people’s rights to life and to health, as well as the right to a healthy environment, according to Amnesty International.
Khan said that in Lahore alone, around 70 percent of the city’s tree cover had been lost in the name of development. He said rising air pollution and toxic smog was now taking a heavy toll on human lives as no measures had been initiated to curb the menace.
“This was bound to have an impact [on human life],” Khan said, and promised to reverse the tide through public participation.
But environmental experts remain skeptical about the efficacy of the government’s environmental index and said the initiative did not address the root causes of the problem.
“This is a cosmetic step and will hardly help curb increasing pollution in the cities,” Ahmad Rafay Alam, a Lahore-based environmental lawyer and activist, told Arab News.
Alam urged the government to cut consumption of fossil fuels [diesel and coal] being used in electricity generation, transportation and industry to improve the air quality and deal with adverse impacts of climate change.
“We need to switch to renewables like wind and solar to fulfil our energy demands, and improve air quality,” he said.
PM launches 'Clean Green Pakistan Index' to address air pollution
PM launches 'Clean Green Pakistan Index' to address air pollution
- The index has been initially launched in 19 cities
- Environmental experts say the step is merely a ‘cosmetic’ one
Death toll from heavy rains in northwest Pakistan rises to 39
- The rains that began last Friday have damaged 2,391 houses across the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province
- In southwestern Balochistan province, heavy rains have killed 15 people, triggered flash floods in several areas
PESHAWAR/QUETTA: The death toll from continuing rains in Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province has risen to 39, while another 54 people have been injured in various incidents, the KP Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) said on Friday.
The rains that began last Friday have caused damages to 2,391 houses in several districts across the province, according to the PDMA.
Khyber, Dir Lower and Upper, Chitral Upper and Lower, Swat, Shangla, Bajaur, Malakand, Karak and Tank districts have been declared the most affected by the downpours.
“As many as 23 children, eight men and eight women are among those died in rain related incidents during the last eight days,” the PDMA said in a statement on Friday.
The current spell of showers, which began on April 17, was likely to continue till April 21, the PDMA said this week.
The provincial government has released Rs110 million to be distributed among the affected families and dispatched aid, including tents, kitchen kits, blankets, hygiene kits, mosquito nets and mattresses, to the affected areas, according to the authority.
As the rains were expected to continue intermittently until April 21, the PDMA said it had already a letter to administration of all districts to remain alert and take precautionary measures.
In the southwestern Balochistan province, heavy rains have killed 15 people since Friday and triggered flash floods in several areas, according to provincial authorities.
Balochistan Chief Minister Sarfaraz Bugti said climate change had become a “challenge” for the provincial government.
“Current rains are unusual which were never reported in a thousand years,” he told reporters on Friday. “The government has been helping the masses with available resources and our teams have reached all districts to help the people affected by rains and floods.”
Pakistan has received heavy rains in the last three weeks that have triggered landslides and flash floods in several parts of the South Asian country.
The eastern province of Punjab has reported 21 lighting- and roof collapse-related deaths, while Balochistan, in the country’s southwest, reported 10 deaths as authorities declared a state of emergency following flash floods.
In 2022, downpours swelled rivers and at one point flooded a third of Pakistan, killing 1,739 people. The floods also caused $30 billion in damages, from which Pakistan is still trying to rebuild.
CM Bugti promises ‘good governance’ as 14-member cabinet takes oath in Pakistan’s Balochistan
- Development came more than two months after Balochistan elected its representatives in Feb. 8 national polls
- CM Sarfraz Bugti says the formation of the cabinet took time due to consultation with all coalition partners
ISLAMABAD: Balochistan Chief Minister Sarfraz Bugti on Friday promised “good governance” and provision of maximum relief to public as his 14-member cabinet took oath in the southwestern Pakistani province, Pakistani state media reported.
The cabinet members were sworn in at a ceremony held at the Governor House in the provincial capital of Quetta, where Governor Malik Abdul Wali Kakar administered the oath to them.
The development came more than two months after Balochistan elected its representatives in the national election that was held on February 8, this year.
Bugti said the formation of the cabinet took time due to consultation with all coalition partners, the state-run APP news agency reported.
“Balochistan was facing many challenges, including terrorism,” he was quoted as saying in the report. “Providing maximum relief to the public and strengthening good governance were key priorities for the provincial government.”
Balochistan is the site of a long-running insurgency by separatist and religiously motivated militants, who have recently carried out a number of attacks in the region.
Gunmen this month killed nine people, who hailed from the eastern Punjab province, after abducting them from a bus on a highway near the Noshki district. The outlawed Balochistan Liberation Army claimed responsibility for the attack.
Although the government says it has quelled the insurgency, violence by groups demanding independence from the central government has persisted in the province.
Pakistan says will continue ‘constructive engagement’ with Riyadh to enhance economic, strategic partnership
- Saudi foreign minister visited Islamabad this week to discuss investments
- Saudi deputy defense minister is also currently visiting Pakistani capital
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s foreign office said on Friday the South Asian country would continue its “constructive engagement” with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to enhance economic and strategic partnerships between the longtime allies.
Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud came to Islamabad on a two-day visit this week aimed at strengthening bilateral economic cooperation and pushing forward previously agreed investment deals. Pakistan has said it pitched investment projects worth$30 billion to Riyadh during Prince Faisal’s visit.
The Saudi official’s visit followed a meeting in Makkah between Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in which the Kingdom had pledged to expedite $5 billion in investments.
“We will continue our constructive engagement with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to enhance our economic and strategic partnership,” foreign office spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said at a weekly briefing, giving details of Prince Faisal’s visit, whose purpose she said “was to accelerate discussions on enhanced bilateral economic cooperation in the follow up of the understandings reached between Prime Minister of Pakistan Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif and Crown Prince and Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia His Royal Highness Mohammed bin Salman.”
At a ‘Saudi Arabia-Pakistan Investment Conference’ co-chaired by the two foreign ministers in Islamabad, the two sides discussed investment proposals in diverse sectors such as energy, mining, agriculture, information technology, construction, human resource development and exports, Baloch said, adding that the investment conference was aimed at paving the way for Saudi investments in Pakistan.
“The Foreign Ministers of Pakistan and Saudi Arabia discussed global and regional developments,” Baloch added.
“There was unanimity of views on the increasing instability in the region. The two Foreign Ministers urged de-escalation and called for an immediate ceasefire, lifting of the siege of Gaza and access to unimpeded humanitarian aid for the besieged people of Gaza.”
The spokesperson said Pakistan was “deeply disappointed” at the result of last night’s debate at the United Nation Security Council and its inability to reach consensus and recommend Palestine’s membership of the UN to the General Assembly.
“We regret the US decision to veto the draft resolution granting full membership of the UN to Palestine,” Baloch said.
Rohit says India-Pakistan Test cricket would be ‘awesome’
- South Asian neighbors are bitter political adversaries, have not faced off in Test since 2007
- They play only occasionally in shorter versions of game usually on neutral territory
NEW DELHI: India captain Rohit Sharma has thrown his support behind any resumption of Test cricket against arch-rivals Pakistan, saying it would be “awesome.”
The South Asian neighbors are bitter political adversaries and have fought three wars against each other since they were partitioned at the end of British colonial rule in 1947.
Their cricket teams have not faced off in a Test since 2007. Instead they play only occasionally in the shorter versions of the game and usually on neutral territory in international tournaments.
Rohit appeared Thursday on a YouTube chat show hosted by former captains Adam Gilchrist of Australia and Michael Vaughan of England.
Asked by Vaughan if playing Pakistan in a Test series would be beneficial for the five-day game, Rohit said: “I totally believe that.”
“They are a good team, superb bowling line-up, good contest. Especially if you play in overseas conditions, that will be awesome,” added the 36-year-old.
“I would love to. It would be a great contest between two sides... so why not?“
Australia has said it would be prepared to host a series between the rivals.
India and Pakistan have not faced each other on either side’s soil in a bilateral series since 2012.
India last year refused to travel to Pakistan for the white-ball Asia Cup, prompting part of the tournament to be staged in Sri Lanka.
They last met at the 50-over World Cup in India in October.
Pakistan aims to agree outline of new IMF loan in May — finance minister
- Current $3 billion arrangement with IMF runs out in late April
- Pakistan is seeking longer and bigger loan of at least $6 billion
WASHINGTON: Pakistan hopes to agree the contours of a new International Monetary Fund loan in May, Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb told Reuters, and has kicked off talks with ratings agencies to lay the groundwork for a return to international debt markets.
The country’s current $3 billion arrangement with the fund runs out in late April and the government is seeking a longer and bigger loan to help bring permanence to macroeconomic stability as well as an umbrella under which the country can execute much needed structural reforms, the minister said.
“We expect the IMF mission to be in Islamabad around the middle of May — and that is when some of these contours will start developing,” said Aurangzeb, who met with the Fund’s Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva on Wednesday during the International Monetary Fund and World Bank Spring Meetings.
He declined to outline what size program the government hoped to secure, though Pakistan is expected to seek at least $6 billion. Aurangzeb added that once the IMF loan was agreed, Pakistan would also request additional financing from the Fund under the Resilience and Sustainability Trust.
The struggling South Asian nation had managed to accumulate foreign exchange reserves in recent months and was on track for its war chest to hit $10 billion — or roughly two months import cover — by end-June.
The debt situation also looked more benign, Aurangzeb said.
“The bulk of our bilateral debt — including our China debt — is being rolled over, so in that sense I think we are in good shape and I don’t see a big issue during this fiscal year nor next fiscal year, cause we need to repay roughly $25 billion dollars every fiscal year.”
Pakistan also hopes to come back to international capital markets, possibly with a green bond. However, there was some more work to be done before that happens, said Aurangzeb.
“We have to come back into a certain ratings environment,” he said, having kicked off talks with ratings agencies, adding the government was hoping to get an improvement in its sovereign rating in the next fiscal year.
“In all likelihood, any international capital markets issuance will likely be in the 2025/2026 fiscal year.”
