There may be a number of reasons responsible for a natural disaster, flood, land sliding and snow fall. When it occurs, there becomes an emergency situation and the life faces vulnerabilities. In such circumstances, many blame the administration, government, relevant departments and other tangible factors for the failures and loss of human life, that may be correct to some extent, but one needs to dig the matter deeper, in order to find a long lasting and sustainable solution to the problem.
Same is the case in Pakistan, when the Murree incident occurred, which pushed more than 20 people including women and children to death in a tourist spot of Punjab province in Pakistan, many criticized the government for the delay response, which is absolutely correct in its own sphere. It is the responsibility of the government to provide the people with the best possible facilities in any condition. The Communication, governance and management gaps may be some of the factors responsible for the heart breaking accident, However, there are several other factors, that are involved in bringing such storms, disasters, droughts and heavy rainfalls that produce immense negative impacts on the ecosystem.
The climate change is probably the most serious issue of the contemporary world, which effects not only the lives of human beings but of other living organisms as well, on both domestic and international level. Previously, few decades ago, the nation states thought about traditional security such as military security or economic security to some extent. But currently the world has changed due to globalization, so as the concept of security, which has been categorized into multi-dimensional aspects. Among such multi-faced concepts of security, the most important one, nowadays is environmental security. Due to anti-environmental activities of human beings, the temperature of the globe rises which leads to the climate change, that ultimately causes such sudden weather changes, the one we witnessed in the Murree in last few weeks. The climate change one of the major non-traditional security threats, which needs appropriate, befitting and effective attention on national, regional and global level.
The Murree, one of the most easily accessible tourist spots of Pakistan, the top most priority of the people since the independence. No matter it is summer or winter, every month hundreds of thousand vehicles enter to the town from the other provinces of the country. Nobody cares about the polluted gases release from the vehicles that seriously disturb the atmosphere. Similarly, the country lacks strong urban governance, sustainable environmental practices and effective laws related to construction, which play a major role in destroying the environmental balance.
These heavy rain and snow falls, droughts, tornadoes, famines and floods that were supposed to come at the interval of every 10 to 12 years earlier, are now coming into existence in a much shorter span of time. Moreover, the time span will be further reduced in the coming future, if the anti-environmental activities continue in the same manner. Due to such ill pursuits on the earth, several cycles in the universe are disordered, as a results of which extreme weather conditions occur more commonly. As a result of such weather conditions, incidents occur, among which that of Murree is the latest one.
One can blame government or administration for the lack of effective governance, adequate facilities and timely response, but to tackle the problem on permanent basis, individual, societal and governmental response is the need of the hour, on domestic, national, regional and international level. In the case of Pakistan, it becomes more important to frame a comprehensive roadmap in order to contain the climate change, as the country shares the list of the most vulnerable countries in term of climate change.
Various governments in Pakistan took several initiatives to deal the multi-dimensional implications of climate change during their tenure, however, the country needs much influential measures in the current scenario. The present government of Pakistan Tahreek Insaf PTI have launched ten billion trees plantation drive, to make sure maximum forests on the Pakistan’s soil in order to maintain the ecosystem.
However, apart from the initiatives and measures that the government of Pakistan has taken or keen to take, the country needs to adopt multiple, effective, long lasting and sustainable policies in terms of climate change containment. Strong legislation in this regard is extremely important, if the country wants to avoid the weather challenges on permanent basis. Despite securing the particular agendas of their party leaders, the parliamentarians in Pakistani parliament have to make a constructive debate on the legislation regarding environmental protection, in order to frame laws over the issue.
The country lacks effective and strong laws on the several aspects of the environment such as forests and its protection, rivers, clean water and life under water etc. Similarly, transportation and construction sectors also need proper attention in this regard as both play major role in environmental degradation. For instance, increasing housing societies on one hand are reducing the forest by converting it to urban areas, and the keeping of private vehicles by the citizens on the other hand is raising the toxic gases in the air, as a result of both, the climate experiences tremendous changes. The parliament needs to equally prefer these aspects as well in order to maintain a healthy, long lasting and sustainable human friendly environment.
