Govt negligence pushed Pakistan to edge of environmental disaster: Malik Amin

ISLAMABAD: In a recent development, the Former Minister of State for Environment, Malik Amin Aslam, has said that Pakistan has entered a serious environmental crisis, and it is imperative to immediately declare a climate emergency.

Speaking on ABN’s program Debate @ 8, he said that the recent devastating floods are not a sudden natural disaster but the result of decades of government negligence. According to him, three major rivers of Pakistan are currently in flood at the same time, the aftermath of which could cause widespread destruction in Punjab and Sindh.

Malik Amin Aslam said that Pakistan has not learned anything from the horrific floods of 2010, 2014, and 2022. He said that the tragedy is that every time after a disaster, governments temporarily become active but later fall asleep in negligence. Even today, we are as unprepared as we were ten years ago.

He revealed that after 2022, the Federal Flood Protection Plan was prepared, the ECC approved Rs 20 billion, but this year, only Rs 100 million was allocated for this purpose.

The former minister further said that during the PTI government, major environmental projects were launched, including the 10 Billion Tree Tsunami, the Living Indus Program, and Recharge Pakistan.

These measures reduced deforestation from 2014 to 2022, which was also confirmed by satellite data from international organizations. However, the continuity was broken after 2022, and deforestation doubled in 2024.

He said that illegal construction and encroachment on the banks of rivers have become a major threat. Land and timber mafias in Pakistan are playing with the system of nature. The powerful class builds resorts and housing societies on the banks of rivers; NOCs are also obtained, but there is no one to stop them.

Giving the example of the Ravi River, he said that nature itself took back the land by washing away the encroachments and warned that if the mafias were not controlled, nature itself would make a way.

Talking about the NDMA, he said that the agency spent most of its funds on event management, while no attention was paid to forming disaster management committees at the local level. He demanded that it should be clear where these funds were spent and why they could not be used on the ground.

Malik Amin Aslam stressed that to secure the future of Pakistan, the environment should be made the top priority of every government, clear funding should be kept in the budget, implementation of prepared environmental projects should be ensured, and strict action should be taken against the land and timber mafia.

He warned that if we do not change our course, nature itself will take the blame in the coming years. This disaster will not stop but will increase every year.