A Pakistani conglomerate is adding to the country's tree cover as smog continues to blight its cities. Sufi Group of Companies has launched a "Green Pakistan - Clean Pakistan" campaign and started planting 100,000 saplings across selected areas. The company says the effort is aimed at reducing smog, cutting carbon emissions and improving air quality in local communities.

The new drive builds on earlier work. According to the company, it has already planted more than 200,000 trees, and the latest campaign would raise its cumulative total well beyond a quarter of a million if completed as planned.

Sufi has framed the initiative around three objectives. These are curbing smog, lowering carbon footprints and improving local air quality by expanding tree cover, problems that have grown increasingly pressing for communities across Pakistan.

Planting trees is only half the task, and the company says it recognises this. Sufi plans dedicated care and maintenance after planting to help the saplings grow and to secure a high survival rate, an aspect of tree-planting schemes that is often neglected.

The company presents the campaign as part of its corporate social responsibility and broader commitment to environmental sustainability. It also hopes the initiative will encourage wider public action towards a cleaner, greener country.

The announcement left several questions unanswered, however. It did not specify where the trees will be planted, which species will be used, how survival rates will be monitored or what the campaign will cost. Those details will determine how much the project contributes to cleaner air in practice.