PM rejects flood relief dashboard, asks officials to make it ‘world-class’

Premier Shehbaz expresses dissatisfaction over panel, saying more features should be added to ensure transparency

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has refused to inaugurate the ‘digital dashboard’ developed to ensure transparency in flood relief assistance and its distribution, asking the authorities concerned to add more features to it.

“What kind of dashboard is it? It is a joke. It is not a board that is required,” Express News quoted the premier as saying during a briefing on flood relief efforts in Islamabad on Monday.

Expressing dissatisfaction over the dashboard, the premier said a real-time monitoring panel of international standards would ensure better coordination among institutions and enhance the country’s credibility.

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The prime minister, in a briefing on the dashboard being developed to provide real-time information about flood relief support and its usage, instructed the officials to add more features like the weather alert and others to make it a “world-class” platform containing all relevant information.

“We should design a dashboard which the whole nation should be proud of,” PM Shehbaz said.

He exemplified a dashboard on dengue outbreak by the Punjab government during his stint as chief minister, which he said had got international recognition as it had contained all the relevant information like hotspots and the provided facilities.

Read more: Planning Commission puts flood damages at $28b

The prime minister also pointed out the shortcomings in the design and called for further improvements to enable it to meet the nation’s needs and effectively reflect the coordinated efforts being made by the government for relief and rehabilitation of the flood-stricken people.

Premier Shehbaz said the flood relief dashboard must contain all the relevant information about every item where the relief items like quilts and baby food were sent and where they came from.

He said the government would provide all required support for the development of the dashboard which should not be a makeshift arrangement but rather a facility usable even for decades.

(With additional input from APP)