Political responses to flood operations

According to officials, trams have been busy engaged in a damage assessment survey throughout the district.

BAHAWALPUR: Former federal minister Muhammad Ali Durrani said that the relief package that was supposed to be distributed on behalf of the federal and provincial governments among flood affected people has been limited to the districts of Dera Ghazi Khan, Rajanpur, Leyyah and Muzaffargarh.

In Rahim Yar Khan and Bahawalpur’s Shahraqpur area locals have complained that no one has received any instalment of the aid package as yet. According to government officials, trams have been busy engaged in a damage assessment survey throughout the district. Durrani was addressing notables in Chachran Sharif and said that in several Bahwalpur affected areas the government officials were extorting Rs200 to Rs500 in guise of the survey with the promise to help the flood victims personally.

“Eid is approaching but the federal and provincial governments have not given any aid to the people only empty promises,” he said.

In Okara, provincial minister for Labour and Manpower Muhammad Ashraf Khan Sohna said that the entire nation was engaged in providing flood relief items to the affected people. Sohna said that Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) office-bearers, federal and provincial ministers were united under the leadership of President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani to ensure the steady supply of relief goods in a transparent manner.

“People are trying to politicise the flood relief issue even though we are facing a severe crisis. Our focus needs to be on rehabilitation and relief,” he said, adding that the dreams of those using the floods as an opportunity for political gain will never be fulfilled.

Sohna said that standing crops on vast areas had been decimated by the floods and the agriculture situation was critical as next year’s crop would be severely affected.
Chairman Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Imran Khan is scheduled to lead a caravan of about 300 trucks loaded with various food items including clothes and medicine to South Punjab and Sindh after Eid -ul-Fitr .

Khan will lead the first caravan to Pakhtunkhwa for the flood victims of Peshawar, Mardan, Malakand, Hazara and DI Khan divisions, said PTI vice president Ijaz Ahmed Chaudhry.

Chaudhary said the caravan namely ‘the caravan of hope’ would set off on September 11 from Islamabad and volunteers from all walks of life will join the operations.

In a recently issued press release from the party’s central secretariat on Friday, Imran Khan made a clarion call to all people who wished to contribute in the relief efforts and join the caravan if they desired.

The caravan will travel by motorway and branch off to various destinations including Nowshera, Charsadda, Swat, Kohistan (Hazara), DI Khan and Mardan for reaching out to the flood victims in 11 districts.

Khan said that he had been working overtime for the last couple of weeks collecting donations for flood victims in cash and kind from abroad as well inside the country. He has also attended telethons for charity purposes.

Imran Khan intends to lead similar caravans in southern Punjab, Sindh and Balochistan in a few days.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 7^th, 2010.