Sindh Assembly echoes with strong criticism on govt functionaries

KARACHI:

After the floods, the favouritism in the distribution of ration on political grounds dominated the proceedings of the Sindh Assembly on Wednesday as opposition MPAs raised concerns about discrimination during the relief activities in various districts of the province.

As the session started with speaker Agha Siraj Durrani in the chair, the debate on flood continued for the third consecutive day.

The opposition members alleged that the ruling Pakistan People's Party (PPP) leaders and elected representatives distributed the ration among their own voters ignoring others. "During the last two days of speeches in the session, the provincial ministers are giving an impression as if they have provided 'roti, kapra aur makaan' to people in every nook and corner across the province. They are giving an impression as all is well and no one is left from getting the government incentives," said Arif Mustafa Jatoi of the Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA) in his speech.

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According to Jatoi, each and every piece of data is being exaggerated by the provincial ministers citing the number of tents distributed by them in their areas that surpassed the total number of tents manufactured in the country. "PPP minister and MPAs claim that they have provided 5,000 to 10,000 tents. If it is true then why people, sitting in the open sky, are protesting for the tents and ration," he said.

He displayed the photos in the house showing some influential people's animals standing inside the tents. "The innocent people are wrapping themselves with plastic bags while the animals of powerful people are kept in the tents," he lamented.

Jaoti criticised the provincial government for not taking preventive measures to deal with the calamity ignoring all Met office predictions.

"The Met office had informed the authorities many times about heavy rains with gusty winds and flood, but all in vain.

"The Sindh government has announced to divert the development funds to flood. The total amount of the provincial development fund stands at Rs332 billion. How can they compensate for 200,000 damaged houses, 3.7 million acres of crops washed away, and thousands of perished animals? There is no transparent mechanism in place. I fear that in the name of the rehabilitation process, all the funds will go into the pockets of government functionaries and PPP leaders," he said.

PTI MPA Adeel Ahmed raised the same concern saying, "During the floods, we visited different areas and saw politically-motivated help in the distribution of ration."

He added that the cases under the anti-terrorism act were registered against those flood victims who were protesting against the discrimination in relief activities.

Ahmed said more than 12.5 million people were affected by the flood with 2.3 million houses damaged in 1,330 union councils.

Quoting the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) report, he quashed the provincial ministers' claims about 90,000 tents provided to disaster-hit people and said, "As per PDMA report there were 31 relief camps in Sindh. You can imagine how many people can be accommodated in 31 camps," he said, adding that the people involved in multi-billion-rupee corruption cases have been made focal persons for the distribution of ration.

PPP Minister Shabir Bijarani, defending his government's initiatives, said that almost all the ministers and MPAs belonging to the ruling party spent all the time in their constituencies following the directives of the party's leadership and providing relief to the flood victims without discrimination. "We provided cooked food to people without tracing their identity,'' he said adding, "The situation was unprecedented due to which some main roads and highways came under water. It caused a little delay in reaching some areas. Later, we, with the help of the army and Navy and local administration, rescued the people to safe places."

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According to Bijarani, all the relief activities were being distributed and monitored by the army, so there was no question of discrimination in the process.

He added that UAE, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, the USA, and other countries sent the relief goods which were handed over to PDMA and Army to distribute among the flood-hit people.

Earlier, Rabia Azfar Nizami of PTI drew the attention of the house towards the condition of government schools after the floods saying, "Around 29,000 out of 49,446 schools were damaged by the floods while 13,000 of them collapsed."

These schools were damaged due to a lack of structural assessment of the buildings in the last 10 years, she boomed. Moreover, over 2,500 schools have been converted into flood relief camps.

She said that around 6.9 million children were already out of school and 50 per cent more would lose the right to free education due to the damaged school.

The PTI MPA quoting official figures said that the province had already been a victim of learning poverty and now it would face learning deprivation. Learning poverty means children of 10 years of age cannot read or write while learning deprivation means education for only those who can afford to buy it.

Only private schools will thrive and poor people will have no option but to send children into child labour.

Nizami said that as per the provincial government three years would be required to restore the school in the province. “Does it mean our children will remain out of school for the next three years,” she asked.

PTI MPA Rabia Azfar Nizami took a strong exception to Sharmila Farooqi calling children orphaned in floods helpless. “These children are the responsibility of the state,” she said.

Nizami further dragged Farooqi for saying, ‘we will build homes for flood victims, “are you paying from your own account that you used the word ‘we’. This is taxpayer money being spent here.”

Waryam Faqeer of GDA, Zulfikar Shah of PPP, and others also spoke on the issue. Later, the speaker adjourned the session till tomorrow (Thursday).