Billion Tree Tsunami project should not be politicised: Zartaj Gul

ISLAMABAD: State Minister for Climate Change Zartaj Gul on Monday urged political rivals not to politicise the Billion Tree Tsunami prgramme as no foreign funding was used in the project, ARY News reported.

Zartaj Gul Wazir, while addressing a press conference in Islamabad, said that the international donors were ready to give funds for the project. She added that each word delivered by the local media and politicians were being observed by international donors for the project expanded to ’10 Billion Tree Tsunami’.

Ms Wazir slammed ‘propaganda’ being run by the opposition leaders in order to dent reputation of the tree plantation campaign which was ‘later recognised by various international organizations including WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature) and World Economic Forum (WEF) after its successful journey’.

The state minister detailed that thousands of acres infertile land was used in BTT project and people will praise the move for its benefits at the time of natural disasters.

Minister of State for Climate Change Ms. Zartaj Gul holding a Press Conference at #PID https://t.co/28cS2T9Vlw

— Govt of Pakistan (@pid_gov) May 6, 2019

The minister highlighted that it was emerged into the fourth biggest initiative across the world for climate change.

“Women are also included in the programme, whereas, 16 people sacrificed their lives to securing the tree project which was initiated in 2014 by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP),” she said, adding that the estimated cost of the project was Rs22 billion but it was completed only in Rs12 billion.