Staff Report
ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister’s Special Assistant on Climate Change, Malik Amin Aslam has said that the present government was taking all-out measures to help Gilgit-Baltistan government to overcome challenges of environmental degradation, solid waste, climate change and deforestation. “Prime Minister Imran Khan-led government was aware of the exacerbating challenges being faced by the climate-vulnerable region of Gilgit-Baltistan, which have led to negative fallouts for various social and economic sectors particularly water, energy and agriculture,” Malik Amin Aslam said.
He expressed these views during his meeting with the Chief Minister of Gilgit-Baltistan. While referring to various climate change and environment-related studies of the Pakistan Meteorological Department, Malik Amin Aslam highlighted that over recent years, the global warming-caused events of glacial melting, glacial lake outburst floods, riverine floods and shifting rainfall patterns have shown rising frequency and intensity, affecting badly not only socio-economic lives of the region but also those in the southern parts of the country.
Meanwhile, sharing about deleterious impacts of environmental degradation and climate change, the Gilgit-Baltistan chief minister informed the Prime Minister’s aide Malik Amin Aslam that lack of alternative to fuelwoods, which is mined from the local forest areas, have led to massive tree-felling unabated since long.
