Islamabad:
The Federal Planning Minister, Ahsan IQBAL, was alarmed on Wednesday for the conversion without control of fertile agricultural lands in housing societies, which described an “existential threat” for the country’s food security.
When qualifying the trend of an imminent crisis, Iqbal warned that the unbridled propagation of real estate developments on cultivable land could endanger the country’s ability to feed future generations.
“Will the next generations have enough to eat?” He asked, adding that food security was under a severe and immediate threat.
The Federal Minister expressed these opinions while presiding over a high -level meeting to address the issue.
The meeting was attended by senior officials of the federal and provincial departments, the Capital Development Authority (CDA) and representatives of the relevant ministries.
Iqbal emphasized that urgent measures should be adopted to reverse this trend, particularly promoting vertical construction in cities such as Islamabad to reduce horizontal urban expansion.
He also urged strict laws to stop deforestation, calling for environmental preservation a shared national responsibility.
The minister ordered the provincial authorities to compile data on the scope of the agricultural lands lost by housing schemes in the last two decades. He pointed out that the absence of adequate urban planning has tension infrastructure and triggered systemic crises.
“We are selling our future of food consuming blindly agriculturally,” he lamented. “The environmental balance in Pakistan is deteriorating; the greed of the house is devouring culture lands.”
