Aid distribution through bureaucracy opposed

Lawmakers in the Gilgit-Baltistan want distribution of aid to be carried out through area representatives.

GILGIT: Lawmakers in the Gilgit-Baltistan Assembly on Wednesday voiced dissatisfaction over the distribution of relief goods among the flood victims through district government officials, saying that the distribution should be carried out through area representatives.

“The distribution shouldn’t be done through bureaucrats, but through elected representatives of the respective areas,” Amna Ansari, a Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid lawmaker from Skardu, said on a point of order in the assembly.

She was vehemently supported by other lawmakers who expressed discontent with the existing situation demanding a change, saying that they were unaware of the origins of the incoming aid and its eventual distribution, additionally blaming the bureaucracy for wasting it through corruption.

The members of the G-B Assembly also drew the chief minister’s attention towards the relief goods rotting away at the Islamabad airport, and at the Islamabad’s G-B house, which they complained was not transported to G-B.

They questioned why the government didn’t take measures to ensure successful transportation of the relief goods to those facing starvation in the aftermath of floods.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 30^th, 2010.