Malik Amin Aslam (born 27 November 1966) is a

Pakistani Pakistanis (, ) are the citizens and nationals of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Pakistan is the fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the second-largest Muslim population as of 2023. As much as ...

environmentalist and politician who served as Federal Minister of State for Environment from 2004-2007 in the cabinet of Prime Minister Shukat Aziz later as Federal Minister and Adviser to former

Prime Minister of Pakistan The prime minister of Pakistan (, Roman Urdu, romanized: Wazīr ē Aʿẓam , ) is the head of government of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Executive authority is vested in the prime minister and his chosen Cabinet of Pakistan, cabinet, desp ...

Imran Khan Imran Ahmed Khan Niazi (born 5 October 1952) is a Pakistani politician, philanthropist, and former cricketer who served as the 19th prime minister of Pakistan from August 2018 until April 2022. He was the founder of the political party Pak ...

for

Climate Change Present-day climate change includes both global warming—the ongoing increase in Global surface temperature, global average temperature—and its wider effects on Earth's climate system. Climate variability and change, Climate change in ...

. He also serves as

Vice President A vice president or vice-president, also director in British English, is an officer in government or business who is below the president (chief executive officer) in rank. It can also refer to executive vice presidents, signifying that the vi ...

IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. Founded in 1948, IUCN has become the global authority on the status ...

. A notable personality in Attock District, he has previously chaired the flagship Green Growth Initiative for the KPK province in Pakistan from 2013 till 2018, which included the mass a forestation “

Billion Tree Tsunami The Billion Tree Tsunami was a tree plantation drive launched in 2014, by the government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan, in response to the challenge of global warming. Pakistan's Billion Tree Tsunami restores 350,000 hectares of forests and de ...

” project.

Early life and education

Malik Amin Aslam was born into a

Punjabi Muslim Punjabi Muslims are Punjabis who are adherents of Islam. With a population of more than 112 million, they are the third-largest predominantly Islam-adhering Muslim ethnicity in the world, after Arabs and Bengalis. The majority of Punjabi Musl ...

family of the

Awan Awan may refer to: * Awan (surname), including a list of people with the name *Awana, also known as Awan is a clan of Gujjars in South Asia * Awan (tribe), a social group of Pakistan * Awan dynasty, an Elamite dynasty of Iran * Awan languages, ...

clan in

Karachi Karachi is the capital city of the Administrative units of Pakistan, province of Sindh, Pakistan. It is the List of cities in Pakistan by population, largest city in Pakistan and 12th List of largest cities, largest in the world, with a popul ...

on 27 November 1966. His family has been in politics for three generations, as his father served as member of National Assembly from Attock thrice and was the Punjab revenue minister. He got his early education from the

Aitchison College Aitchison College is an elite private, boarding school, boarding Junior School, Secondary School for boys in Lahore, Pakistan. It has educated Prime Minister of Pakistan, prime ministers, including Imran Khan, Feroz Khan Noon, president of Pakist ...

. He later moved to

Lahore Lahore ( ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Administrative units of Pakistan, Pakistani province of Punjab, Pakistan, Punjab. It is the List of cities in Pakistan by population, second-largest city in Pakistan, after Karachi, and ...

in 1990 to study for the degree of BSc in

Electrical Engineering Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems that use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...

from

UET Lahore UET may refer to: * Unitary executive theory, an American constitutional principle * European University of Tirana The European University of Tirana (, UET) is an accredited private university in Tirana, Albania. It was established in 2006 by ...

. For higher education, he went abroad to get

MBA A Master of Business Administration (MBA) is a professional degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration; elective courses may allow further study in a particular a ...

Finance Finance refers to monetary resources and to the study and Academic discipline, discipline of money, currency, assets and Liability (financial accounting), liabilities. As a subject of study, is a field of Business administration, Business Admin ...

from

McGill University McGill University (French: Université McGill) is an English-language public research university in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1821 by royal charter,Frost, Stanley Brice. ''McGill University, Vol. I. For the Advancement of Learning, ...

in 1993 and a MSc in

Environmental Management Environmental resource management or environmental management is the management of the interaction and impact of human societies on the environment. It is not, as the phrase might suggest, the management of the environment itself. Environment ...

from

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

in 1996. According to the official profile o
Minister of Climate Change Government of Pakistan
he completed his thesis on the utility of the “emissions trading” concept within the context of managing the

issue. He is also a member of the International Editorial Board of Climate Policy Journal since 1998. He is married with and is a father of two sons and a daughter. His hobbies include scuba diving and sky diving.

Professional life

After his studies, Malik Amin Aslam worked as the private consultant with the

World Bank The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and Grant (money), grants to the governments of Least developed countries, low- and Developing country, middle-income countries for the purposes of economic development ...

and

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...

on environmental issues. His area of expertise is climate change and has written a number of articles and co-authored two books that have been published by the World Resource Institute in

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

He was also on the National Environmental Advisory Board and the Environmental Protection Council before entering politics. He considers himself a technocrat-turned-politician. An agriculturist/environment consultant by profession, he has also served as a member of the UN Working Group on Climate Change since 1997. On 13 September 2011, he was elected to serve on the governing council of

International Union for Conservation of Nature The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. Founded in 1948, IUCN has become the global authority on the stat ...

for a four-year term in 2012. He was re-elected as Regional Councillor for Asia (2016-2020) at the World Conservation Congress held in Hawaii (September 2016). He also chaired the flagship "Green Growth initiative" for the province of KPK in Pakistan – which included the mass afforestation "Billion Tree Tsunami" project. He was also chosen to serve on the high level "International Advisory Council" for the Eco-Forum Global. In August 2018, Prime Minister

nominated Malik as Advisor on

. On 23 March 2019, Malik was honored with the

Tamgha-e-Imtiaz Tamgha-e-Imtiaz (), also spelled as Tamgha-i-Imtiaz, is a state-organised honour of Pakistan. It is given to any civilian in Pakistan based on their achievements. While it is a civilian/military award, it can be bestowed upon officers of the ...

by the

President of Pakistan The president of Pakistan () is the head of state of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. The president is the nominal head of the executive and the supreme commander of the Pakistan Armed Forces.

Arif Alvi Arif-ur-Rehman Alvi () is a Pakistani politician who served as the 13th President of Pakistan, in office from 2018 to 2024. He was a member of the National Assembly of Pakistan from June 2013 to May 2018 and again from August to September 2018. ...

for his efforts in implementing the Billion Tree Tsunami and his work for the environment.

Political career

He began his political career at the time when

Islamic Republic of Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

under the control of military dictator

Pervez Musharraf Pervez Musharraf (11 August 1943 – 5 February 2023) was a Pakistani general and politician who served as the tenth president of Pakistan from 2001 to 2008. Prior to his career in politics, he was a four-star general and appointed as ...

. He first successfully ran in local elections from

Attock Attock ( Punjabi, ), formerly known as Campbellpur (Punjabi, ), is a city in Punjab, Pakistan, not far from the country's capital Islamabad. It is the headquarters of the Attock District and is 36th largest city in the Punjab and 61st largest c ...

, Punjab, Pakistan, in 2001.

General Elections - 2002

A year later, under the military regime he became an elected Member of

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the repr ...

after th
controversial election of 2002
and served as Minister of State for Environment. He ran on the ticket of

Pakistan Muslim League (Q) The Pakistan Muslim League (Quaid e Azam Group) ; ''Pākistān Muslim Līg (Qāf)'', Acronyms: PML(Q), PML-Q, PMLQ, "Q League" (officially registered as the Pakistan Muslim League) is a political party in Pakistan. As of the 2024 parliamentary e ...

from NA-57 (Attock-I). His tenure ended in 2007.

General Elections - 2008

In the general elections of 2008, he contested independently and lost with the margin of only 200 votes in a tainted electoral process] .

General Elections - 2013

He joined Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf on 19 November 2011 and became the architect of the party's green agendahttps://www.dawn.com/news/790464/ptis-green-policy-vision. He ran for same seat in general elections of 2013 but lost by only 2000 votes to Sheikh Aftab Ahmed from

Pakistan Muslim League (N) The Pakistan Muslim League (N) or (PML(N)) is a Centre-right politics, centre-right, Conservatism in Pakistan, conservative political party in Pakistan. It is currently the third-largest party in the Senate of Pakistan, Senate and the larges ...

. His appeal for a vote recount was readily accepted by the Election Commission but then scrapped without a reason just one day after that. The ensuing case in the Election Commission continues till date https://www.dawn.com/news/amp/1015122e

General Elections - 2018

Attock was considered an important seat in 2018 elections. During this time

embraced Major(r) Tahir Sadiq Khan, a powerful political personality, joined Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf. This opened up a lot of speculations among the locals about who would get the party ticket. In the end Imran Khan decided to give the ticket to Major(r) Tahir Sadiq. The supporters of Malik Amin Aslam were in shock over the denial of NA ticket to him from Attock. Few days after the announcement of the party ticket, at a function, Imran Khan showered praise on Malik Amin Aslam for making the Billion Tree Tsunami project a great success and promised to make him federal minister for environment after the elections. Malik Amin Aslam Khan mostly remains frustrated due to his defeat from Major Tahir Sadiq. He parted ways with PTI on 18 May 2023 due to differences on the party's controversial involvement in violent protests especially targeting military installations.

Nomination as Advisor on Climate Change

Prime Minister Imran Khan Imran Ahmed Khan Niazi (born 5 October 1952) is a Pakistani politician, philanthropist, and former cricketer who served as the 19th prime minister of Pakistan from August 2018 until April 2022. He was the founder of the political party Pak ...

fulfilled his promise in August 2018, when he nominated Malik Amin Aslam for the Cabinet Seat of Adviser for Climate Change to the Prime Minister of Pakistan. This decision was very well received by the local environmentalists. Fulfilling the trust reposed in him by Imran Khan, Malik Amin Aslam spearheaded an unprecedented green transformation in Pakistan from 2018-2022 . The globally acclaimed Billion Tree Tsunami and 10 Billion Tree Tsunami were initiated which resulted in the planting of over 3 billion trees in climate vulnerable Pakistan https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-solutions/interactive/2021/pakistan-tree-billion-tsunami-photos and positioned Pakistan as a global green champion which was selected to host the World Environment Day in 2021 https://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/press-release/pakistan-host-world-environment-day-2021 as well as launching the UN global decade on ecosystem restoration https://www.oneplanetnetwork.org/news-and-events/news/launch-un-decade-ecosystem-restoration-during-world-environment-day-2021/. Recognising this global leadership, Pakistan also got included as a "Champion of Nature" by the World Economic Forum https://tribune.com.pk/story/2265788/pakistan-included-in-wefs-champions-for-nature-community/. Other leading nature based initiatives were also designed, initiated and launched during this period of green leadership and included the "Protected Areas Initiative" which enhanced the protected area coverage in the country by over 50% https://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/story/pakistan-ramps-protected-areas/ and the "Living Indus" initiative was launched to restore the dying ecology of the River Indus which remains the country's natural lifeline https://www.brecorder.com/news/40138297/. This visionary initiative has also been selected as one of the UN's flagship initiatives for ecosystem restoration in the world https://www.app.com.pk/national/living-indus-initiative-named-one-of-seven-un-world-restoration-flagships//. Another futuristic nature based solution called "Recharge Pakistan", to recharge the country's dwindling ground water resources through utilisation of flood waters, also got approved during this visionary green tenure https://timesofislamabad.com/25-Sep-2018/recharge-pakistan-pm-imran-khan-launches-first-ever-such-initiative-in-the-history-of-pakistan/. This period, undoubtedly, remains one of the golden periods for Pakistan's green transformation as well as global green leadership. On 18 May 2023, Malik Amin Aslam made the decision to leave the

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) is a political party in Pakistan established in 1996 by cricketer and politician Imran Khan, who served as the country's prime minister from 2018 to 2022. The party is led by Gohar Ali Khan since late 2023. ...

(PTI) party. His departure was prompted by the violent protests that took place on 9 May.https://www.geo.tv/latest/488064-malik-amin-aslam-announces-decision-to-leave-pti

Publications

* ''Climate Change: Global Solutions and Opportunities for Pakistan'', 2000. * ''The Kyoto Mechanisms & Global Climate Change: Coordination Issues and Domestic Policies'', 2000. Co-authored with Erik F. Haites. * ''Greenhouse gas market perspectives : trade and investment implications of the climate change regime ; recent research on institutional and economic aspects of carbon trading'', 2001. * ''Carbon Market Development in Pakistan'', 2008.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Aslam, Malik Amin Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf politicians Living people 1966 births Alumni of the University of Oxford McGill University Faculty of Management alumni Pakistani environmentalists Pakistani activists People from Attock District Aitchison College alumni Recipients of Tamgha-e-Imtiaz University of Engineering and Technology, Lahore alumni