Cooperation between India, Pakistan vital to fight smog: Haroon Rasheed
Haroon Rasheed said CM should 'suspend' smog like he fights rain with his long boots during monsoon
LAHORE: (Dunya News, Web Desk) – Senior columnist, and analyst, Haroon Rasheed has on Saturday said that Punjab Chief Minister (CM) Shehbaz Sharif should ‘suspend’ the smog, just like he thinks that the only remedy to the rainwater during monsoon is going into the water wearing his long boots, reported Dunya News.
Talking on Dunya News program Khabar Yeh Hai, Haroon Rasheed said that the environmental pollution hadn’t occurred out of blue. He said that it was due to decades of negligence that we were going through this situation now. “Nobody really even cared. Some people also believe that this smog is being caused by the pollution in the air due to Orange Line Metro Train. However, it is a project under construction and will be over soon. But the solution of this smog is actually artificial rain, in the short term”, he said.
He added that the long term solution could only be found through fighting the environmental pollution in a joint front. Pakistan, India and other regional countries should join hands to fight this issue so that we may find a long-term solution to this issue. He said that regional cooperation was must in this regard.
“This is nothing unheard of. In 1950s and 60s, windscreens of the cars in Britain would turn black due to the smoke coming out of the chimneys of the factories but it was sorted out. The solution right now, since there is no chance of rain till December at least, is artificial rain. This is a bit expensive of course but has to be tried because the gravity of the situation”, he said.
Criticising Punjab government over its priorities, Haroon Rasheed said that the Punjab government never planned for long-term on any issue. He said that CM was busy thinking about the metro bus and similar mega projects but would never focus on issues like this one.
His co-host on the show Habib Akram also agreed with him on the need of regional cooperation in this regard. He said that Pakistan should seek cooperation from India in this regard but the diplomatic ties of the neighbouring countries were at such a low point it was hard for the two to cooperate on any issue at all. He added that the smog was a grave issue and was already reportedly causing diseases like influenza, eye diseases and causing serious problems for asthma patients.
