Overseas Pakistanis who lost jobs due to virus likely to be hired as ‘jungle workers’
- 20 Jul 2020
Tariq Butt, Correspondent
The Climate Change Ministry is considering a proposal to hire those overseas Pakistanis as “jungle workers” who have been rendered unemployed especially from the Gulf countries due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The record of unemployed overseas Pakistanis would be obtained from the relevant ministry and steps would be taken to hire them as jungle workers on a priority basis.
According to the official data, tree plantation is already underway on some 20,000 acres of land in Islamabad and other parts of Pakistan where thousands of jungle workers are earning livelihood amid coronavirus pandemic.
These workers carry out different types of work including plantation of saplings, the establishment of nurseries and protection of tree cover from deforestation and fire incidents. It also showed that the federal government is also in a process to get a loan from foreign donor agencies that would be utilised to initiate other Clean and Green projects in Pakistan.
According to the World Economic Forum, these kinds of “green stimulus” efforts set a precedent of how funds that aim to help families and keep the economy running during coronavirus pandemic could help nations prepare for the next big threat: climate change. The climate change ministry spokesman said there are thousands of jungle workers who are already earning Rs500 to Rs800 a day and their number is increasing day by day as the government is enhancing Green Stimulus programme to other cities of Pakistan.
Adviser to the Prime Minister on Climate Change Malik Amin Aslam in a statement said the government has launched the Green Stimulus Package to support 10 Billion Tsunami Afforestation Project that is not only providing jobs to unemployed people but also boosting conservation activities all over the country.
Recently, Prime Minister Imran Khan said a “Green Pakistan” guarantees a prosperous future for coming generations and asked the nation to join hands in achieving the target of planting 10 billion trees to fight climate change and environmental pollution.