Pakistani Minister of State for Environment Malik Amin Aslam said on Wednesday that almost 6 percent of the country's gross domestic product (GDP) is being lost due to environmental degradation.

He was speaking as chief guest at the National Workshop on Urban Air Quality and Integrated Traffic Management at Pakistan's largest city Karachi, state-run APP reported.

The two-day moot is being organized by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN), Pakistan Clean Air Network (PCAN) and Clean Air Initiative for Asian Cities (CAI-Asia) in collaboration with the Pakistan Environmental Protection Agency (Pak EPA), Sindh Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA), City District Government of Karachi ( CDGK), Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the World Bank (WB).

The minister described the loss of 6 percent of GDP as a large amount and said this trend is not in right direction.

He said major cities of Pakistan like Karachi, Lahore, Rawalpindi and Islamabad are choking owing to the rapid economic growth.

The minister was of the view that the challenge is to decouple this economic growth from the environmental degradation which is happening along with it.

He stressed that such a challenge should be taken up through the collective efforts by all concerned and that partnerships should be forged in this regard.

He said that there is a need to find out right solutions for tackling the problem.

The minister said that the situation of air pollution was alarming in Lahore but owing to the steps taken in the right direction the reversal is taking place.

He stated that the government of the Punjab has come up with the green fund which is for fostering the Compressed Natural Gas ( CNG) rickshaws conversion.

Aslam also asked the civil society to take this issue forward with the support of the government as well as the donor agencies.

He further said that awareness raising on this issue was also critical and there should be a partnership in tackling the issue.

The Minister also called for a proper air quality management strategy.

He said clean air program would be initiated in all the big cities of the country.

The minister said various steps would be taken in all the cities such as CNG conversion, traffic management and how to replace the old vehicles plying on the roads, banning of two stroke rickshaws and their conversion to cleaner fuel as well as increasing the quality of fuel.

He also announced a time table has been set as July in 2008 that the refineries would go for low sulphur fuel and the car manufacturers would adopt the Euro 2 standard.

Aslam said that the government is committed to bringing about environmental improvements in the country.

He said that two years ago the budget for environmental improvements was 300 million rupees (about 5 million U.S. dollars) which jumped to 3 billion rupees (about 50 million dollars) last year and that this year the amount is 5 billion rupees (about 833. 3 million dollars).

The minister said that the Pakistani government is serious in tackling the environmental issues and that has chalked out a medium-term development framework for the next five years with a budgetary allocation of 20 billion rupees (about 333.4 million dollars ) for the environment sector.

Source: http://english.people.com.cn/200609/14/eng20060914_302588.html