ISLAMABAD: The World Bank has downgraded the $200-million Punjab Green Development Programme to “moderately unsatisfactory” as Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar-led government failed to meet environment protection-related key targets.
The Washington-based lender’s decision to downgrade the project form “moderately satisfactory” to “moderately unsatisfactory” says that the Punjab government was not taking Prime Minister Imran Khan’s clean and green initiative seriously.
The World Bank compiled the fourth Implementation Status and Results Report of the Punjab Green Development Programme in November. Imran Khan launched the Clean Green Pakistan Index (CGPI)in November as part of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government’s efforts to fight against climate change.
The World Bank report showed that due to the poor outcome against the programme targets, financial disbursements also remained at only $23.8 million, which was equal to just 12 percent of the total loan of $200 million.
World Bank approved the loan in May 2018 for the project that has a total span of five years. However, the results of the past one and a half years showed that the situation on the ground remained almost unchanged.
