Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif launched a nationwide monsoon tree plantation drive on Wednesday by planting a sapling at a ceremony. He announced that he had instructed relevant departments to plant at least 100 million saplings across Pakistan, including in Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir, to mitigate the effects of climate change, which severely impacted the country in 2022.
The prime minister referred to the devastating floods caused by climate change that resulted in over 1,700 deaths, displaced eight million people, and inflicted an estimated $3 billion in losses. In August 2022, the government declared a state of emergency due to the catastrophic floods.