ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan on Monday saidthe coming generations will suffer heavily because of pollution and globalwarming unless projects on the same pattern as Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s‘billion tree tsunami’ are launched all over the country.
In a tweet, the PTI chief said: “All Pak govts are to be blamed for thedestruction of our forests and tree cover in urban areas. Our futuregenerations will suffer heavily through pollution and global warming unlesswe replicate KP’s #BillionTreeTsunamilink> all over thecountry.”
His tweet comes at a time when the National Accountability Bureau haslaunched a probe into ‘billion tree tsunami’ project of the KP governmentfollowing complaints regarding alleged corruption during execution of theventure.
A team of officers, according to NAB statement, has been constituted toconduct a probe into the alleged embezzlement of funds in the project. Abriefing was given by officers concerned of the forest department todirector general KP NAB Farmanullah Khan. The briefing was attended bydirectors and other relevant officers before they galvanize into action.
The team asked questions regarding different aspects of the project such asallocation and utilization of funds, saplings and self-growing seeds,procurement of plants, procedure for plantation, free distribution, hiringof Negehbaan, procedure for payments, etc.
The process of inquiry into the billion tree tsunami project had beeninitiated following directives issued by NAB Chairman retired Justice JavedIqbal.
The ‘Billion Tree Tsunami’ project was launched in 2015 by PakistanTehreek-e-Insaf chairman Imran Khan aimed at turning the tide on landdegradation and loss in mountainous, formerly forested KP.
By August 2017, it was reported the project significantly surpassed itstarget by restoring and planting trees across 348,000 hectares of degradedforest landscapes in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Inger Anderson, Director General of IUCN, an international NGO, had said ina statement: “IUCN congratulates Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on reaching thismomentous milestone. The Billion Tree Tsunami initiative is a trueconservation success story, one that further demonstrates Pakistan’sleadership role in the international restoration effort and continuedcommitment to the Bonn Challenge.”