In open forum on environmental policy as a part of 03 days workshop organized by the Dept. of Journalism and Media Studies. Mr. Wajid Ali Khan, Minister for Environment was the chief spokesman and the guest of honor in the session. The senior officer from environmental department KPK Mr. Kakakhail and other distinguished personalities related to the environmental science participated in the open discussion. In his opening address the minister of Environment elaborated about the environmental policy of the KPK Government and its implementation status. He expressed his dissatisfaction with the quantum of reporting on the subject which was of supreme national importance for its continued and regular publicity in the national newspapers of the country. He lamented the degradation of the environment due to lack of public awareness resulting in a ruthless cutting of the forest, converting the valuable agricultural land for housing purposes, hunting of the rare species of the birds and wildlife and rapidly extinction of medicinal plants and rare wealth of the unique biodiversity of this area. Mr. Kakakhail in his elaborate lecture expressed various factors responsible for the declining state of our environment besides vanishing the forest wealth he referred to the water crises and the power shortage because of only two water reservoirs of the country. It is a pity that India has four thousand dames to meet its agricultural needs and has become self-sufficient in food crops, vegetables and fruts. Pakistan needs more dames and friendly relation with its nibrough to get share of its water resources because all the sources of water were lying outside of Pakistan. Other eminent specialists also delivered lectures and multimedia presentation including the Chief Conservative Forest, Miss. Aysha with statistical data on the fast dwindling environmental status of the country. Mr. Shujat Ali Khan of JMC Dept. acted an Anchor and invited questions for the open discussions from the journalists and visiting guests. Prof. Shoukat Hussain Shah, Chairman Dept. of Journalism and Media Studies in his concluding remarks summed up the discussion and paid rich tributes to the minister and guest speakers for analytically and synthetically presentations for creating awareness on various compelling environmental issues. He hoped that our journalist community will come up with a more thoughtful and environmental friendly policy to use their pens for bringing a real change in the perception of common to the environment.
