Need stressed to sensitise policy-makers about environmental hazards

Eminent zoological scientist Zahid Baig Mirza has underlined the urgent need for sensitising the policy-makers as well as masses about the grave environmental hazards posed to our eco-system and environment which are being rapidly degraded as a result of merciless cutting of forest trees and pollution of rivers and soils in the country.
He voiced these apprehensions while delivering a lecture on "Environmental Concerns and its Management Issues" to the students and faculty members of PU Zoology Department at the Undergraduate Block here on Monday. Registrar Professor Dr Muhammad Akhtar and Professor Dr Muhammad Naeem Khan were also present.
Dr Mirza said it is regrettable that in the hilly areas massive cutting of forest trees by the vest interests is going on under the very nose of concerned authorities without any check or hindrance which is resulting in soil erosion and causing major threat to environment. The land after cutting of trees is being mainly used for growing fruit orchards, food crops and for human habitation.
Resultantly, bird species populations are experiencing gradually imbalanced in their habitants at the hands of humans, while many of the animals are becoming endangered species owing to environmental degradation. Sewage and industrial waste in all cities of the country is being dumped in rivers and canals which not ultimately destroys coastal beauty and marine life but also poses serious threat to the inhabitants.
He said that cruel depletion of our national resources will lead to destruction of socio-economic system due to acute shortage of water and food in the country. He, therefore, made an impassioned appeal to the bureaucratic and political high-ups to enforce all-out measures for protection of the country's environment before the situation goes out of hand. The lecture was followed by question-answer session in which both the students and faculty members sought answers to their queries and questions.
While Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry has expressed his thanks and appreciation to the Vice-Chancellor Punjab University Professor Dr Mujahid Kamran for sending a copy of thesis titled "Implication of Judicial Activism to Human Rights (A Comparative Study of India and Pakistan)", written by PU Law College Assistant Professor Dr Aman Ullah. In a letter addressed to PU Vice-Chancellor by the Registrar Dr Faqir Hussain, the Chief Justice also hoped that the said work would be a valuable addition to the legal literature on human rights protection in Pakistan and beyond.