Speakers at the meeting of Shura Hamdard Karachi chapter urged the government and the people to take counter steps to reverse the Climate Change affects as Pakistan ranked among most vulnerable countries of the world.
The meeting was held yesterday on the theme: “Climate Change – a serious threat to human life” with Haziqul Khairi, former chief justice, Federal Shariat Court, Islamabad in the chair at a hotel in Islamabad.
Speaking on the occasion Dr. Mirza Arshad Ali beg, former Director General, Pakistan Council of Scientific and Industrial Research said that the western countries had no doubt done great work regarding modern scientific inventions, but they had also indulged the world into two world wars and the threat of Climate Change was also their dangerous gift to the world as their huge heavy industries were omitting greenhouses gases and polluting the world atmosphere. ‘We neither can do anything to stop the effects of climate change nor we can stop to industrialize our country as we shall have to provide jobs to our people,’ he said, adding: ‘Indian ocean has been getting hot and its temperature is raising by 1.5 percent every year, resulting in change of weather of this region and taking us on the verge of a volcano,’ he maintained.
Mrs. Sadia Rashid, President Hamdard Foundation Pakistan said that humans were the main driver of the global environmental change and only they could reverse the effects of climate-change. Shaheed Hakim Mohammed Said 20 years back had written an essay titled “Industrial Pollution”, in which he highlighted the imminent disastrous effects of climate change and warned that if concrete decisions an political basis were not taken this beautiful world of our would be met with great destruction, she said, adding that the time has come that the industrial powers of the world should comply with their promises made by them in Paris Conference and make their coordinated efforts to reduce the omission of greenhouse gases to the required percentage by 2020.
Zafar Iqbal, President, Defense Residents Housing Society said that in Rio de Janeiro conference, held in Brazil, a $100 billion fund was established to combat the climate change and 2 billion was allotted to Pakistan out of this fund. America and European countries did a lot to make their environmental condition better, but countries of South America, Africa and Central Asia, including Pakistan failed to do so, the government of Pakistan should take immediate steps in this connection, he added.
Khalid Ikramulla Khan said that climate change posed great threat to Pakistan, Brazil and India too as there was continuing raining for two months in Chinai, India. The climate change was result of the testing of atom bombs on land, in sea and air by the ambitious countries and developed countries had created this problem so they must do something to solve this dangerous problem, he added.
Engineer Anwarul Haq Siddiqui was of the view that population control and water management were the precondition to avoid the effects of climate change for Pakistan. Our irrigation system was one of the best systems of the world. Pakistan was a water surplus country, but now a water scarce country, because of water mismanagement and the reason was that the work which should be done by the engineers, allotted to non-engineers, he added.
Anwar Aziz Jakartawalla and Prof. Dr. Wiquar Ahmed Rizvi also spoke.
