ISLAMABAD: Trees clean the air but Minister of State Tariq Fazal Chaudhry invited criticism by gracing a tree plantation event in the city on Monday.

Since his ministry is devoted to make Islamabad smoke-free, some environment enthusiasts took offence to his presence at the event where the Capital Development Authority signed a Memorandum of Understanding with a tobacco company about planting 800,000 trees during this spring.

“It sends a wrong signal,” observed Nadeem Iqbal of The Network for Consumer Protection, which works against tobacco use. “After all, Pakistan ratified the United Nations Framework Convention on Tobacco Control in 2005 and Dr Tariq Fazal’s Ministry of Capital Administration and Development Division (CADD) controls the CDA.”

“Under the Article 13 of the UN convention the tobacco industry cannot do any Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activity because the industry is after building its image that it cares about the health of people,” he told Dawn (italics).

As a physician, the minister should know the harm smoking causes. “But it is possible bureaucrats used him and we expect that he will not violate the law again,” said the NGO official.

Indeed, that was the explanation Dr Tariq Fazal offered when contacted. He told Dawn that he was not aware of the restrictions put by the UN Convention on the tobacco industry’s promotional activities and public figures attending them.

“The fact is that all the things (regarding the MoU) had been finalised some six months ago, much earlier than my arrival in the ministry. So I just went to a scheduled event,” said the minister.

Meanwhile, his ministry quoted him telling the ceremony that Pakistan was no exception to the global warming and climate change.

“We have to deal with this challenge by planting more trees and improving green character of our cities. We are learning from good practices and example from around the world and trying to replicate those for beautifying Islamabad,” he said.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has assigned him “the special task to conserve the Margalla Hills Forest”, he said, assuring that no construction would be allowed beyond a red line.

But the minister acknowledged that “limited resources and lack of monitoring has been an issue”. However, public-private partnership can be a solution, he said, and invited multinational corporations to play a role in maintaining “the green character” of Islamabad.

Meanwhile, the minister’s presence at the MoU signing ceremony shocked not just environmentalists but also people in the health sector.

An official of the Ministry of National Health Services, who is not authorised to speak on record, said that health circles were shocked because CADD ministry also controls health departments and hospitals of the federal capital.

“In Pakistan, forests are cut to cultivate tobacco and the irony is that the tobacco industry tries to show that it cares about environment,” the official said. “Ovens burn continuously for eight to 20 days to roast tobacco leaves and mostly wood is used for it. One tree goes into smoke to make 15 packets of cigarettes.”

And the tobacco industry produces four billion packets in Pakistan every year, requiring the bark of 30 million trees. Filter of each of the 80 billion cigarettes smoked every year in the country need 12 years to decompose.

“Cigarettes are harmful not just humans but are counter as the biggest threat to marine life when thrown into water,” he said.

“If tobacco industry is really serious about the environment it should stop manufacturing cigarettes. Moreover participation of a minister in such events weakens officers who have been working against the tobacco,” he said.

Published in Dawn, February 16th, 2016