PESHAWAR
The Department of Islamiat, Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Women University Peshawar (SBBWUP) on Tuesday organized a conference regarding climate change in collaboration with Pakistan Council of World Religions Faith Friends.
The chief guest was former Federal Minister for Religious Affairs, Dr Noorul Haq Qadri, while the Vice Chancellor of Agriculture University, Professor Dr. Jahan Bakht, Qari Roohullah Madani, Minority leader Haroon Sarab Dayal, Bishop Humphrey Sarfraz Peter were invited as speakers. Apart from this, faculty heads and students of the university also attended the conference.
The Vice Chancellor Professor Dr. Safia Ahmed during her opening remarks said that climate change is one of the most attention seeking issue which is affecting our lives deeply yet we are unaware of the upcoming consequences and we need immediate measures on global scale to overcome the disasters happening due to Climate Change.
She said that we pollute our surroundings and environment which aid adverse effects on the climate. Our religion considers cleanliness as half faith but we have forgotten the true essence of our religion’s teaching and hence facing the consequences. While talking about the steps taken by university in particular, she enlightened that SBBWUP launched Climate Change Cell in 2017, which works to build public capacity through public awareness research to minimize the impact of climate change.
Apart from this, links with international universities and various institutions are also being worked on and recently the university has signed an agreement with the National Incubation Center in which the university students will pitch ideas related to awareness campaigns regarding climate change.
The former federal minister, Dr. Noorul Haq Qadri said that our government has given the idea of green and clean Pakistan. Pakistan is facing a major challenge of climate change.
He said that former Prime Minister Imran Khan was very fond of nature, he would have been sad if he had received the news of cutting a tree, so he directed to use every platform to create awareness among people.
He started various planting campaigns in this regard and “billion tree tsunami” is his most successful campaign, He also directed to include religious figures to work on climate change awareness in the light of our religion.
He said that only taking up arms and killing someone is not a riot, but spoiling and disturbing the nature and its processes is also considered the same.
The VC Agriculture University, Prof. Dr. Jahan Bakht said that global warming is increasing day by day, people in the world make 11 percent of used water reusable. Compared to which only one percent of water in our country is recycled. If we do not manage to save water properly, we will face severe water shortage in 2025 and it will also affect our food production as already in the past year we had only 34 percent of wheat production in the country which is a serious threat to our economy.
Dr. Farhan Shamish, Chairperson Department of Environmental Sciences, Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan, gave a detailed briefing to protect the climate change from its bad effects while talking through a power point presentation. He said that global warming is happening due to greenhouses.
Pak Council of World Religions founder member, Haroon Sarab Dayal and Bishop Humphrey Sarfaraz Peter said that people are returning to religion and nature has its own laws.
As people, we have interfered in the nature and this has caused many issues including the wrath caused by Covid 19.
