LAHORE: Expressing concern over increasing pollution, Minister of State for Climate Change Zartaj Gul has called for imposing a “transport emergency” in all major cities including Lahore to check smog and air pollution.

“There should be a complete ban on unnecessary vehicles coming on the roads on weekends”, she said while addressing a seminar on “Effects of Smog on Human Health” after launching a tree plantation campaign here at the University of Health Sciences (UHS) on Monday.

UHS Vice-Chancellor Prof Javed Akram, pro-VC Prof Maroof Aziz Khan, Immunology department’s Head Dr Shah Jahan besides senior officers of Forest department and a large number of students were present on the occasion.

Zartaj Gul maintained that despite not being a heavily industrial country, Pakistan was badly affected by the issues of climate change and global warming. She added the country was vulnerable to wild weather and other effects of climate change including, sea intrusion, unusual rain patterns, rising temperatures and drought.

“On one hand, the already-arid region of Thar desert is, unfortunately, experiencing recurring droughts whereas, on the other hand, the groundwater table in some cities of Balochistan has gone down to 1200 feet”, she said, adding: “Had the PTI government not started building 10 dams, the people would have died of thirst in the years to come”, she said.

The minister also inaugurated a research project on smog to be carried out by the investigators of the UHS’s Immunology department. She congratulated UHS VC, faculty, and students on the launch of the first research project on the effects of smog on health. She committed that her ministry would work closely with the UHS on such projects and would also provide funding in future.

She claimed that so far over 1.47 billion trees had been planted in the country under the 10 Billion Tree Tsunami which was also being appreciated internationally.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022