ISLAMABAD:President Dr Arif Aliv has emphasized to adopt precautionary measures during budget sessions of Parliament. He gave these remarks during his visit to Parliament House here Monday. Speaker Asad Qaiser received and welcomed the President.
Dr Arif Alvi directed to follow SOPs during the sessions, including maintaining social distancing between the parliamentary members. The President also visited Senate Hall where Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani and Senator Azam Swati received him.
ISLAMABAD:World Bank (WB) will provide 188 million US dollars to Pakistan to address environmental degradation, deforestation and climate change-caused disaster risks in the country.
A signing ceremony to this effect was held here on Monday. Addressing on the occasion, Advisor to Prime Minister Malik Amin Aslam said the present government is taking all out measures for overall environmental protection through forest regeneration and biodiversity conservation programmes.
He said Green Economic Stimulus supports the objectives of 10-billion Tree Tsunami Afforestation Project, which is aimed at bolstering plantations, setting up of nurseries, natural forests, and promotion of honey, fruits and olive plantation in Pakistan.
World Bank’s Country Director to Pakistan, Illango Patchamuthu expressed hope that this new initiative will take Pakistan’s climate-resilience and disaster management capabilities to new height through furtherance of bilateral relations between government of Pakistan and the World Bank.
ISLAMABAD:The provincial chief ministers on Monday agreed to the negative list proposed by the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) to allow the left over economic and industrial sectors halted due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The provincial chief ministers joined the NCOC meeting through video link which was chaired by Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Asad Umar. Chief Minister Punjab Usman Buzdar expressed his agreement on the negative list aimed to allow left over closed economic sectors with strict compliance of standard operating procedures (SOPS).
He suggested the forum to review the testing regime as every single individual could not be tested and the policy should be reduced to testing of only symptomatic and affected patients. Chief Minister Sindh Syed Murad Ali Shah said the negative list was agreed, however, opening of restaurants with SOPs compliance was not possible as proposed in the negative list. He said there was no public compliance of SOPs which made it difficult to allow restaurant to operate. Shah suggested that the media campaigns should underscore the following of safety guidelines and SOPs.
Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Mehmood Khan also supported the negative list. He highlighted the issues faced by overseas Pakistanis stranded in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) and requested the forum to provide assistance in this regard.
Chief Minister Balochistan was represented by the parliamentary Secretary who conveyed the comments of Chief Minister Jam Kamal Khan. The parliamentary secretary mentioned that SOPs compliance was a major challenge in the province and, therefore, it was not possible to open up schools in the prevailing contagion.
Chief Minister Gilgit Baltistan Hafiz Hafeezur Rehman also agreed to the proposed negative list and said GB had already closed the sectors flagged in the list. He underscored the need for a budgetary support for the province as its tourism sector, the backbone of the province, had borne the brunt of economic crunch due to the lockdown.
He said the available ventilators were already occupied, and requested the forum to provide its share from the procured ventilators of the federal government. He noted that the tourism sector would remain closed till the outbreak risk reduces.
Prime Minister Azad Jammu and Kashmir Raja Farooq Haider Khan said there was a need to deploy provincial health assets on the Airports of the country for swift screening and credible data gathering. He said the AJK administration fully agreed to the halting of the tourism sector till the pandemic fades away.
He also assured strict compliance of SOPs in all the sectors which were being allowed to open. Speaking on the occasion, Asad Umar said the provincial suggestions and reservations were well noted and incorporated in the decision making.
He said the national and political leadership at the forum had agreed upon the right to earn livelihood without jeopardizing other people’s life by spreading the virus and that punitive actions should be undertaken to ensure strict compliance of SOPs.
Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on National Security Dr Moeed Yusuf informed the forum that testing regime for the Airports was going to be abolished from June 2 where only symptomatic patients would be tested on arrival, whereas the asymptomatic arrivals would be home quarantined and put under the track and trace system. He said two 777 aircrafts were going to fly for KSA to bring back 26 dead bodies of the stranded Pakistanis.
ISLAMABAD:Prime Minister’s Advisor Malik Amin said Monday that present government is taking all-out measures for overall environmental protection through forest regeneration and biodiversity conservation programmes and boosting country’s climate-resilience through enhanced disaster risk management.
This he said while addressing a signing ceremony of the five-year US$ 188 ‘Pakistan Hydromet and Ecosystem Restoration Services project’ agreement here today. Under the agreement, the World Bank would join hands with Pakistan and providing funding and technical support to latter’s disaster resilience and ecosystem restoration initiatives through more reliable and timely weather forecasting, improved disaster risk management services as well as overall environmental sustainability and achieving green growth targets of the country.
The advisor highlighted, “This is the first time that Pakistan has successes to win heft funding of US 188 million for an ambitious five-year project that aims to address environmental degradation, deforestation, climate change-caused disaster risks in the country through nature-based solutions such as increasing forest cover, strengthening hydro-meteorological forecasting for effective delivery of disaster risk management services.”
Explaining about the Green Economic Stimulus, Malik Amin said that it supports the objectives of 10 Billion Tree Tsunami Afforestation Project, which is aimed at bolstering plantations, setting up of nurseries, natural forests, and promotion of honey, fruits and olive plantation in Pakistan. Under the package, a ‘Green Nigehabaan’ initiative would also be launched to provide thousands of job opportunities to youth and daily-wagers in the first phase by making them a part of the plantation campaign. The Green Economic Stimulus also promotes the Clean and Green Pakistan Movement, which adopts a holistic approach and aims at reducing and alleviating pollution of air, ground and water, he added.
He also told the ceremony participants that the climate change ministry has already launched the ‘Ecosystems Restoration Initiative’ (ESRI) which is an ambitious initiative that focuses on applying the nature-based solutions to bolster Pakistan’s climate change adaptation and mitigation objectives while addressing issues like livelihoods and reducing damages from natural disasters.
He said that the current COVID- 19 pandemic situation has brought a new set of challenges for Pakistan like many other countries, including social, political and even to human survival. As a result, it has become increasingly challenging to sustain the livelihoods of millions of people, while putting in place effective safety measures.
A recent assessment indicates that up to 19 million people could be laid off due to the lockdown situation, bringing extreme challenges for the government to ensure the economic survival of the communities, Malik Amin Aslam cautioned.
“But the Government of Pakistan has very ably utilized the situation to ensure economic sustenance of people and converting the challenge into an opportunity through now what is the world-acclaimed Green Stimulus initiative, which has been approved by the Prime Minister Imran Khan as a part of his government’s efforts for ensuring economic security in the wake of the Coronavirus pandemic,” he emphasized.
ISLAMABAD:Wearing Face masks has been made mandatory in all public places in Islamabad.
In a tweet on Sunday, the Deputy Commissioner Islamabad said from today (Sunday) anyone who is violating it can be charged with Section 188 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.
ISLAMABAD:Seven passengers were killed and thirty others injured when a Multan-bound bus over turned on National High way near Khanewal.
Reports quoting rescue sources said the injured have been shifted to District Headquarters Hospital Khanewal where six passengers are in critical condition.
ISLAMABAD:The World Bank has agreed to join hands with Pakistan to support the latter’s disaster resilience and ecosystem restoration initiatives through more reliable and timely weather forecasting, improved disaster risk management services as well as help tackle growing environmental challenges, climate change ministry media focal person Muhammad Saleem said on Sunday.
“The World Bank has conveyed its willingness to the government of Pakistan for providing funding support for an ambitious five-year US$ 188 million ‘Pakistan Hydromet and Ecosystem Restoration Services (PHERS)’ project, which would conclude during the financial year 2024-25,” he said while sharing details of the bilateral partnership.
The climate change ministry official said further that in this regard, an agreement-signing ceremony has been scheduled to be held on June 1 in the climate change ministry, which would be led by the Prime Minister’s Advisor on Climate Change Malik Amin Aslam and the World Bank’s Country Director for Pakistan Illango Patchamuthu.
The ceremony would be attended, among others, by top key government officials of the climate change ministry, Economic Affairs Division, Aviation Division, chief executive officer of the National Disaster Risk Management Fund Pakistan, Pakistan Meteorological Department and National Disaster Management Authority, according to Mr. Saleem.
Spelling out details of the project, he said that the Pakistan Hydromet and Ecosystem Restoration Services project would be implemented through the National Disaster Risk Management Fund (NDRMF) Pakistan, a government-owned company established under Section 42 of the Companies Act 2017 and managed by the climate change ministry.
Explaining about components and subcomponents of the project, the climate change media focal person Muhammad Saleem said that the project comprises two components, namely: ‘Hydro-meteorological and Climate Service’ and ‘Disaster Risk Management’.
The first component has been further divided in the four sub-components, namely:
Institutional Strengthening and Capacity Building, Modernization of the Observation Infrastructure; Data Management, and Forecasting Systems; Enhancing the Pakistan Meteorological Department’s (PMD) Service Delivery and Building Partnerships with the Private Sector; and the last is the Project Management, Systems Integration and Monitoring and Implementation Support of PMD. The second component ‘Disaster Risk Management’ has been divided into three sub-components, namely: Legal Policy and Institutional Strengthening; Infrastructure for Resilience and the Project Management, Monitoring, and Implementation Support of NDMA, he added.
The climate change official remarked that Pakistan has gained credible and proven experience by undertaking a much wider eco-system restoration Initiative by successfully implementing a world-acclaimed five-year Billion Tree Tsunami project in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and now through the implementation of the upscale initiative ’10 Billion Tree Tsunami Programme’ as a part of the present government’s green and clean Pakistan political manifesto and which aims to restore Pakistan’s green cover and protect wildlife, their habitats and conserve biodiversity ecosystems and rapidly depleting natural resources such as land and water.
However, the new ambitious project ‘Pakistan Hydromet and Ecosystem Restoration Services’ to be implemented from this year in partnership with the World Bank and various government entities is actually a plan of actions, which builds on evidence and experience of the eco-system restoration gained as a part of the UN Decade for Eco-System Restoration (2020-2030) programme. Besides, the project is set to act as an effective vehicle to manage risks of environmental degradation and climate change while simultaneously driving economic growth, livelihoods and poverty eradication, Mr. Saleem said.
Elucidating upon foremost objectives of the project, the climate change official said that facilitating transition towards environmentally resilient Pakistan by main streaming adaptation and mitigation through afforestation, biodiversity conservation, enabling and enhancing policy environment consistent with the objectives outlined in Pakistan’s Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) also called national carbon reduction roadmap and enhancing resilience within and across forestry, agriculture, oceans and food systems, including through biodiversity conservation, leveraging supply chains and technology; attaining Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) by restoring at least 30% of degraded forest, 5% of degraded cropland, 6% of degraded grassland (rangeland) and 10% of degraded wetlands in Pakistan by 2030 are among the key objectives of the World Bank-funded US$ 188 million project.
Highlighting the importance of the project in terms of boosting country’s climate resilience and ecosystem restoration by stemming biodiversity loss, the climate change media focal person Muhammad Saleem highlighted that Pakistan was ranked among top-ten country by the Germanwatch Climate Risk Index 2019 because of negative socio-economic impacts of climate change-caused disasters and its climate-vulnerability.
“Thus, investing in climate resilience initiatives for protecting socio-economic sectors, particularly water, energy and agriculture from fallouts of climate change is vital for mitigating the country’s overall climate-vulnerability and protecting lives and livelihoods of the people,” he emphasized.
