'Govt to be blamed for flood losses'

PTI Central President and former Punjab chief minister Chaudhry Parvez Elahi has said the government should be blamed whenever people get drowned in floods.

"The common people are saying that the government has done nothing for us, that the rulers are incompetent that they did not inform us about the flood in time," Elahi said on Tuesday while talking to the media after attending a court hearing.

He also asked as to why illegal housing societies were allowed to be built on riverbed and why they were not vacated on time.

He said a flood like this had never happened before. In addition to the loss of precious lives, he said, the flood also destroyed crops and livestock.

Elahi said he was going to the flood-affected areas of Gujrat, his native city, and goods were being delivered to the flood-affected areas.

"It is our national duty to help the flood-affected people without any discrimination."

He claimed that during his term as the chief minister between 2002 and 2008 and in 2022 he carried out an unprecedented amount of development work in Gujrat.

"Now that these people [PML-N] have come into power, they have submerged Gujrat. Despite being in the government, they are not doing anything," he added.

Elahi said that his government had started work to lay sewer lines in Gujrat but the PML-N government stopped the funding for the project three years back.

"They should be asked why they have stopped the funds. The fault lies with the current government."

He said wherever people drown in floods, the rulers should be held accountable.

Earlier, the FIA Special Court heard the money laundering case and sought arguments from the prosecutor on September 27 on the plea for acquittal of Elahi. The PTI leader's lawyer Amir Saeed Rawn said that the government is an expert in making false cases, adding that the court had cancelled the arrest warrants for Elahi upon his appearance.