LAHORE: The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) on Wednesday told the Lahore High Court (LHC) that there was no need for establishing a new ‘Independent Flood Relief Commission’ since it was providing help to flood victims across the country.
The report was submitted in the court of Chief Justice, Khawaja Muhammad Sharif, during the hearing of a petition filed by Muhammad Ashraf Gondal. Gondal’s petition asks for the constitution of a trustworthy Independent Flood Relief Commission to streamline rehabilitation work in the flood-hit areas.
The report and parawise comments on behalf of Muhammad Bilal, director administration NDMA, were submitted by a deputy attorney general (DAG).
The report said, “The NDMA has been providing all necessary support from resources at the disposal of government to all flood affected people irrespective of sex, creed, caste and race.”
The NDMA was established in order to serve as the coordinating body to facilitate implementation of disaster management strategies, the report added.
The report also stated that there had been no progress regarding the establishment of the National Oversight Disaster Management Council (NODMC). The prime minister, on August 19 in the third meeting of the National Management Commission had said that the council would be established. According to the report, provincial chief ministers had been asked to nominate two people each for the commission, which they had not done. However, now the NDMA is doing the needful and no other body was needed any more, the report said.
The DAG submitted also that the petition was non-maintainable because the petitioner was not a direct victim of the floods and thus has no locus standi to file a petition on the matter.
Upon this, the petitioner’s counsel submitted that being a citizen of Pakistan, he had a constitutional right to move the court on a national issue. The petitioner’s counsel also rejected NDMA’s report. The counsel claimed that the report was a ‘typical’ statement that “all is good and all will be good and that nothing new needs to be done”.
At this stage the CJ observed, “People across the country have suffered colossal losses during the floods. All concerned government departments are playing on words instead of doing the needful for their countrymen. It seems that there is nobody to defend the national interests or to help to people in trouble,” the CJ remarked.
A copy of the NDMA report was given to the petitioner’s counsel after he sought time to file a rejoinder to the report. The court directed the LHC office to fix the petition after the petitioner’s counsel filed his rejoinder.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 9th, 2010.
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