Islamabad Zoo Management Reluctant To Handover Charge To Climate Ministry: Zartaj Gul

Minister of state for Climate Change Zartaj Gul Tuesday said the Islamabad Zoo management was reluctant to handover its charge to her ministry despite Islamabad High Court's verdict

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 23rd Jul, 2019 ) :Minister of state for Climate Change Zartaj Gul Tuesday said the Islamabad Zoo management was reluctant to handover its charge to her ministry despite Islamabad High Court's verdict.

"If anything happened to the birds and animals kept in the zoo, the management will be held responsible as their disgruntled attitude is jeopardizing the wildlife," she said addressing a press conference here.

Zartaj Gul said that the Islamabad High Court had given the decision of Islamabad Marghazar Zoo's custody in favor of her ministry while the administration's take on it was incomprehensible.

"The government is spending Rs 110 million annually on Islamabad Marghzar Zoo while its income is only Rs 0.45 million. Similarly, Rs 130 million are being spent annually on Lahore Zoo, whereas its revenue stands at Rs 33.3 million", she said.

The minister said "We do not want to make this issue a conflict among the institutions rather want to make it clear to the administration that they shall hand over the charge to the Ministry of Climate Change".

She said a study had been conducted by the ministry that found hazardous ratios of Mercury in 54 out of the 57 national and multinational companies' cosmetics samples.

The minister said that the use of skin whitening cosmetics had significantly gone vogue among the women folk and they were making rampant use of fairness creams. However, proper tests had been conducted which had detected 54 companies products containing extreme level of mercury content in the products posing harmful impacts on health, she added.

She informed that the use of plastic bags had been banned since August 14 in the Islamabad Capital Territory whereas the district administration would be on-board with the ministry in this regard.

According to an estimate, the minister said two million people were living in the Federal capital that probably used around three to four bags per capita which was a deplorable practice.

She said that the shopkeepers of all the business centers across the federal capital had been sensitized about the ban.

"If anyone violates the ban then he will be fined Rs 100,000 initially, 200,000 for repeated breach of the law and Rs 500,000 for the third violation, however the district administration will assist in the implementation," Zartaj added.

She said that media, civil society, nongovernmental organizations and other stakeholders should join us in discouraging the use of plastic shopping bags.

"We have started a programme to plant trees across the motorways and highways," she said, adding on its successful execution it had been planned that trees would be planted across Karachi, Hyderabad, Sukkur motorway so that travelers could be provided a pleasant environment.

She said that the ministry was also planning to get the charge of Margalla Hills National Park .

She said the ministry had accelerated its plans and work on the Prime Minister's Clean and Green Pakistan project which was progressing rapidly and plants were being planted across the country.

The ministry had reduced its expenditures by saving 46 percent of its expenses, she added.

Zartaj said that due to lack of timely measures to mitigate climate change risks, the country was losing Rs 14 billion annually which was 5 percent of the country's GDP.

She said that Prime Minister Imran Khan's visit to the United States was a success, adding Prime Minister Imran Khan was fighting for Pakistan and the Muslims.

Meanwhile, the minister had distributed cotton bags among the journalists.