Govt hijacked my clean & green initiative: activist
BOONI: As the government launched its Clean and Green Pakistan programme, environment activist Rehmat Ali Jafar Dost said he was considering suing the PTI government for hijacking his environment initiative and its name without consulting and taking him on board.
Mr Dost told ChitralToday that for years he had actively been working for preservation of environment and worked across Pakistan under his Clean and Green Pakistan campaign.
He carried out the initiative in coordination with civil society activists and schoolchildren from Chitral to Karachi. But Mr Dost has always complained that he never got any government patronage.
He has also been a critic of plantation of alien plants in Chitral terming them a disaster in the making for the local environment. He said instead of backing and appreciating his work, the PTI government hijacked his initiative for which he was considering a legal course.
Meanwhile, the green Pakistan programme was launched in Chitral by the local government and rural development department in coordination with the tehsil municipal administration (TMA) and civil society organizations.
During the campaign, which will continue for two months, garbage accumulating in different parts of the twon and other areas would be removed and disposed of.
Besides cleanliness, campaigns would be launched across Chitral to create awareness among the people about keeping their areas clean and green.
Rehmat Ali Jaffar Dost should be made the official incharge of Clean and Green Pakistan project in Chitral District. It would be a good example of honoring merit.
Rehmat Ali Jaffar Dost deserves appreciation for his countrywide environmental campaigns. He has been doing it for many years now. He has been able to organise and mobilize the youth in almost all the cities through his wide contacts.Within Chitral his youth groups have been performing splendid job by organizing environmental walks and creating awareness among the general masses. Be it Shandur Festival, Kaghlasht or Broghil Rehmat Ali effectively uses such bigger forums for raising awareness. Like a man he stays in Shandur and other festival areas for days to carry out garbage disposal and cleanliness campaigns after the festivals are over and the whole area becomes infested with polythene bags and litter of kinds.
It would be in the fitness of things if the PTI government acknowledge his services and give him position to lead all such campaigns in future. Otherwise his youth groups will be discouraged and the environmental activism created in them will die out.