ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan on Wednesday announced two new high-altitude National Parks in Gilgit-Baltistan, spanning over a huge area of 3,600 sq km which totals five percent of Gilgit-Baltistan's land area.
The newly-notified "Himalaya National Park" and the "Nanga Parbat National Park" comprise unique ecological areas with very rich high-altitude biodiversity as well as precious flora and fauna, which include snow leopards, Himalayan brown bear, Ladakh Urial, Ibex, Markhors, and Blue Sheep. These two national parks have been announced under the PMs "Protected Areas Initiative", which is aiming to ensure the protection and preservation of Pakistan's natural assets through designation and management as national parks. Previously, national parks in the country numbered 30 in 2018, which were announced over 70 years and just remained on paper only.
Now under this initiative, in just eight months, the number of national parks across all provinces is being taken to 45-50 percent increase - whereas, proper community-based management regimes will be put in place in all of them.
In this regards, the prime minister also approved the formation of Gilgit-Baltistan's first "National Parks Service", which he said would provide 5,000 green jobs to the youth in the province.
The PM said the "Park Service Nighabaans" would be trained and employed to manage the parks as areas for biodiversity protection, safe habitats for wildlife preservation as well as for the promotion of nature based eco-tourism.
Along with the announcement of these two national parks, a globally unique "Nature Corridor" has also been formed which traverses a high altitude area (over 10,000 feet height) and connects the provinces of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Azad Jammu and Kashmir through Gilgit-Baltistan.
This will provide a protected and managed corridor for preserving the wildlife of the area - including the iconic snow leopard and Pakistan's national animal, Markhor, which are present in this area.
Special Assistant to Prime Minister Malik Amin Aslam, while briefing the prime minister, said that this high-altitude nature corridor was an initiative of high global significance.
The PM also got a briefing on the associated initiative to save the endangered Ladakh Urial for which a breeding enclosure is being established in Skardu in the natural habitat of this dwindling species in order to enhance its numbers.
Three female Ladakh Urial were already present in the area which is now being fenced and a male is being translocated from Bonji in GB.
This will be the first experiment of its kind globally to save the Ladakh Urial, which is endemic to only Pakistan and India, and remains highly endangered.
The prime minister also stated that this government will have "zero tolerance" towards timber mafia, and praised the work of the GB Forest Department under the "10 Billion Tree Tsunami" project.
He approved the deployment of FC platoons especially for the forest protection drive in GB.
Earlier, speaking at a function organised for the oath-taking ceremony of the 14-member GB cabinet, he expressed hope that the new GB government would set a new tradition and give a governance system that "sets new standards".
"What will the new government do? First, we will work on granting the region provisional provincial status so, that the prevailing sense of deprivation [among the people] can be eradicated."
He stated that a committee would be formed to deliberate on this which would work according to timelines.
PM Imran added that the government would also focus on promoting tourism in the region. "From what I have seen during the past three to four years, there has been an influx of tourists during summer. Sometimes they don't have places to stay."
He stated the government would facilitate the people in order to promote tourism by providing cheap loans, so that the locals were able to build hotels and guest houses.
Commenting on the opposition's anti-government rallies, the prime minister said the opposition was "lying to save their ill-gotten gains".
However, "lies cannot remain concealed for long," he said.
"To hide one lie you have to say a hundred others."
A person who makes money for his children, those same children have to also lie at the end to save that wealth, he said.
"What is the benefit of such wealth that brings destruction upon you and your family?"
He said he had known PPP's Asif Ali Zardari and the PML-N's Nawaz Sharif for several years, and had seen them become a victim of God's wrath.
"Sometimes they go to jail; sometimes they go abroad after lying: All in an effort to save stolen money."
He said the entire Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) was running their current campaign, while people were dying of the coronavirus.
"They are only doing this to save their stolen wealth," he said.
"And if you need to see stress, there was an Ishaq Dar interview [on BBC's HardTalk] just look at his face during the interview, and you will know what stress is," the premier said, referring to the former finance minister's recent interview with the BBC.
"Even if he didn't have heart problems, he would have developed them," he said, adding that Dar spoke one lie after the other as the "whole world watched".
Copyright Business Recorder, 2020