PESHAWAR:Heated debate in Media Education Seminar, organized by Council of Pakistan Newspaper Editors (CPNE) in collaboration with UNDP in Peshawar, on Monday alarmed Pakistan government to save the country from turning into Mohen-jo-Daro with an emphatic appeal to national and regional media to come forward and play its role in creating awareness in the masses as well as the government to avert the future disaster.
The seminar, held under media engagement climate change mitigation and adaptation project, was addressed by the experienced ecologists, experts and specialists who were of the opinion that Pakistan was passing through serious climate warming situation and if, they warned, effective strategy was not evolved in time there would be havoc in Pakistan.
Dr Jabbar Khattak, CPNE, Secretary General, stressed the need for highlighting climate change as a public and a wider governance issue and said media should portray a clear picture of the economic impacts of climate change and the players and processes involved in climate finance and climate budgeting. Khattak apprehended that if those at the helm of affairs failed to pay heed to climate change, God forbid the country would become Mohen-jo-Daro.
Abdul Rahim Moosvi explained the salient features of climate warming and termed it as serious in Pakistan. He said that Sindh was particularly vulnerable climate change and as such was threatened with serious situation.
Glipomete Stuart Hodes in his speech highlighted the role of media and civic responsibility to pave the way of averting the alarming situation of climate change and asked the people to inquire as to why be the issue of climate change and finance governance. He said that big businesses were seizing the green opportunities and paying the price not being friendly climate. He asked media to play the role by hunting news stories on climate change and warned the civil society and the govt. to take effective steps towards this end.
He said that media should inculcate spirit among the young generation to participate in the climate change efforts. Ghulam Akbar, Senior Climate specialist disclosed that cities were drowned in the sea in Karachi mainly due to climate change. He threw light on climate change and its impact in Pakistan and praised Kyber Pakhtoonkhwa where much work had been done against climate warming. He said that Baluchistan was hit by drought and the people were migrating to Sindh with postures.
Tariq Mahmood in his brief speech said that media could develop awareness among the people in the context of federal govt. policy on climate change.
He said that federal govt. would also launch campaign for the awareness of the masses on climate change. Safeer Ahmad, additional secretary KP govt. said that KP govt. has already implemented billion tree project in the province and those found guilty of polluting atmosphere were big penalized. Manzoor Ahmad, secretary higher education KP, said that they were working on a project on climate change and MoU had been sent to Forest Department in this connection.
Tahir Farooq, senior vice president of CPNE thanked the participants for their keen interest in the seminar. Earlier question answer session was held.