ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan on Friday said paying out-of-work people for planting trees during the coronavirus pandemic is beneficial in two ways: employment generation and forestation.

“Killing two birds with one stone: giving people employment as well planting trees,” the prime minister wrote on his Twitter handle. He also shared a video clip of World Economic Forum (WEF), highlighting Pakistan’s step of paying jobless people in the pandemic to plant trees.

According to the WEF video, the construction workers can now earn $3 a day by planting samplings – enough to feed their families and help keep the economy running during the lockdown. It said tens of thousands of new ‘jungle jobs’ had been created to plant rows of tiny seedlings that would grow into huge forests. Lockdown restrictions have been lifted to allow the work to continue, the WEF said, adding that the workers have to wear masks and maintain social distancing.

The WEF mentioned that it is part of Pakistan’s five-year plan to plant 10 billion trees launched by Prime Minister Imran Khan in 2018 to help tackle the effects of climate change. Reforestation can help Pakistan, which has been hit badly by rising temperatures, flooding and drought – all linked by scientists to climate change, the WEF said.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Imran Khan recommended youth a book by American researcher and historian ‘Lost Islamic History’ as a ‘great read during lockdown days’. “An excellent brief history of the driving force that made Islamic civilisation the greatest of its time and then the factors behind its decline,” the prime minister wrote on Twitter about the book by Firas Alkhateeb.

The prime minister said the book, written on reclaiming Muslim civilization from the past, will be a great read for youth during lockdown. A specialist in the Islamic world, Firas Alkhateeb has been teaching Islamic history at Universal School in Bridgeview, Illinois since 2010.