Opp slams K-P govt flood response

The opposition in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Assembly came down hard on the government over a lack of planning for management of the flood situation in the province, during a session cut short because of the quorum issue on Monday.

The chair admonished the opposition for pointing out the quorum only after making their speeches and not listening to the treasury benches. The panel of chairmen, Idris Khattak, asked the opposition to also listen to the government.

Opposition Leader Akaram Durrani raised the issue of floods in the province. He said that K-P faced a big test because of the floods. He stressed that immediate action should be taken for the flood victims of K-P, Sindh and Balochistan.

Nighat Orkazai of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) said that Pakistan was home to 7,250 glaciers, mostly in Gilgit-Baltistan (G-B) and K-P, adding that some 500 glaciers were located in Chitral district alone, which were melting rapidly and putting 7 million people at grave risk.

She pointed out that this year saw an increase in the intensity of heat-wave, which triggered snow melting on the mountains. She told the house that an alert was issued in April that Pakistan would face devastating monsoon floods in June.

“The government woke up only when the disaster had fallen upon us,” she said. “A long-term policy is needed to deal with climate change. In G-B and in K-P, 3,444 glacial lakes have been formed, which may turn into floods if they burst.”

The lawmaker told the house that besides the deaths and injuries in the rains and floods, and other losses to the tune of Rs350 billion, there were 650,000 pregnant women affected by floods. “Of them, 73,000 are expected to give birth by the next month,” she added.

Inayatullah Khan of the Jamaat-e-Islami (IJ) told the house that that at present all the four provinces of the country were under floods. He added that government and the institutions established for the relief and rehabilitation had failed.

Other opposition lawmakers urged the provincial government to start rehabilitation work in the affected areas as soon as possible. They also asked the government to take measures on an emergency basis to deal with the climate change issues.

Later, the opposition pointed out the quorum. On that Labour Minister Shaukat Yousafzai engaged in a heated exchanges with the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) members. The chair also admonished the opposition for its “behaviour”.

“It’s regrettable that the opposition members leave the house after making their speeches and when the turn of the government members come, they pointed out the quorum,” he said. “You should also listen to the government, this should not happen in the future.”

Earlier, the opposition parties strongly protested against the possible merger of education boards under the centralised examination system in the province. They warned of protest if the merger decision was taken by the government unilaterally.

Yousafzai replied that some reports over the past few days had caused concerns among some circles in this regard.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 6^th, 2022.