Protestors blame PPP govt for insufficient flood relief

Speakers demand government to reconstruct all houses damaged during rains

KARACHI:

Scores of supporters of the nationalist parties of Sindh staged a protest outside the Karachi Press Club on Sunday, blaming the Pakistan Peoples Patty led Sindh government for not providing proper rescue and relief to the flood affected families, claiming incapable government machinery was responsible for the damages.

The speakers demanded the government to reconstruct all the houses damaged during the rains, to drain water immediately and support the farmers to harvest their lands again.

"Hundreds of people died. Thousands of villages inundated but there was no rescue and no relief," alleged Qaumi Awami Tehreek's President Ayaz Latif Palijo. He said that the province was flooded because of the inefficiency of the government.

Speaking in the rally organized by the Sindh Action Committee, Palijo said that flood affected children were starving while adult died because of malaria and dengue. The rally participants also hold placards demanding the government to rehabilitate all flood affected people, transparent distribution of internation aids

Sindh United Party's (SUP) Syed Zain Shah said that 15 million people of Sindh have been affected by the floods. "They do not have houses to live and are helpless," he said. He said that the people of Sindh expected that the federal government will help in rehabilitation but, he said, the Rs50 million were allotted to the Member of National Assembly.

SUP's Syed Jalal Mehmood Shah also criticized the government and demanded it to look after the helpless flood affected families living on the roadsides.

The speakers alleged that all the 24 districts underwater were deluged because of the inefficient governance of Pakistan Peoples Party. The protestors also passed a resolution demanding the present government of Sindh should be dismissed because of criminal negligence and corrupt mindset which caused the devastation of more than 20 million lives in Sindh.

It demanded that the Supreme Court should take suo motu notice of recent floods, which devastated Sindh, fixing the responsibility of this large scale devastation and recommending severe punishment to the concerned officials and the decision makers.

It demanded urgent and appropriate actions to drain water from all drowned villages, towns and roads of Sindh with immediate effect. "Sindh demands rehabilitation of all flood affected people with provision of proper homes, health facilities, sources of income and education," it stated. "Sindh demands two year waiver of all taxes on agriculture for flood affected people. Sindh demands provision of interest free loans for new crop cultivation."

It also demanded the government that before monsoon 2023, all waterways should be cleared, all protect bunds of irrigation and drainage facilities including of river Indus be strengthened.

"For rehabilitation work, an independent authority should be constituted associating experts of competence and impeccable character," it stated.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, October 17^th, 2022.