ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan has fulfilled another promise made to the nation and approved the shift from the aging Euro-II standard to the much newer Euro-V standard.

It may be recalled that last year, Prime Minister Imran Khan had said in a press conference that Pakistan has decided to import better quality fuel, by first bringing new technology, importing Euro-IV petrol, and by the end of 2020, shifting to Euro-V. He had said that if quality control is not improved in the next three years, oil refineries will be closed.

During today s meeting of the Federal Cabinet, PM Imran formally approved the decision of upgrading the quality of petrol and diesel in Pakistan from Euro-II to Euro-V.

The Prime Minister had said that this move was primarily aimed at protecting the environment which is under the ever increasing threat of global warming. He said that in order to protect the environment from pollution, forests will be planted on 60,000 kanal of land in Lahore, for which the site has already been identified. He said that this will help in overcoming environmental pollution and have long term benefits for the country.

Many of the advanced countries in the world have enforced Euro-VI standard but Pakistan is still using Euro-II fuel, which is extremely low quality and a major pain for its 220 million population in terms of hazardous pollution as well as outdated vehicles. NNI