MAJUKY FAQIRABAD: President Asif Ali Zadari came under renewed fire on Tuesday for visiting France and Britain while up to 3.2 million of his people suffer from the worst floods in decades.
Devastating monsoon rains have killed up to 1,500 people and washed away entire villages in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, submerging farmland, drowning livestock and now spreading across much of the country.
Zardari came under flak for failing to scrap summits in Britain and Paris to confront the miseries at home.
“Why did Zardari embark on a visit to France and Britain when his own people are in great distress and shock?” asked Murad Khan in Majuky Faqirabad, one of the worst affected villages. “We are facing an awful situation and the president should not have left the country,” said Murad.
Government assistance has yet to materialise in Murad’s village, where witnesses said most homes had been destroyed and at least 100 people were missing.
Survivors are living in desperate conditions under open skies or sheltering from heavy rains in mosques without clean drinking water and food, as fears grow of a public health disaster.
“Two young girls in my immediate neighbourhood drowned in the flood waters,” hit out 40-year-old Sher Khan, also in Majuky.“Zardari should visit the flood-hit areas and take steps for welfare of the stranded people instead of taking joy rides to France and UK.”
Published in The Express Tribune, August 4th, 2010.
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