Legislator gets Watan card

GILGIT: Gilgit-Baltistan’s former chief executive and a PPP stalwart, Pir Karam Ali Shah, has turned out to be one of the beneficiaries of the Watan card scheme.

Shah is a victim of the recent floods that devastated acres of land, crops and trees that belonged to him in Chatorkhand, Gahkuch of Ghizer district and elsewhere in Gilgit. On Shah’s invitation, Chief Minister Mehdi Shah too has visited his area.

“Shah received his Watan card from the NADRA office in Gahkuch on Tuesday after he personally visited the office,” said a witness who was there at the time the PPP veteran was receiving his debit card. Requesting anonymity, the person hailing from the same area said that people were shocked after Shah received the card that was meant for poor people who had lost their belongings in the floods. “Yes, Pir Karam is one of the victims, but what will he do with those Rs20,000 as he owns acres of land and property,” he said.

Commenting on the news, secretary information PPP Gilgit-Baltistan Rana Nazeem said that the flood caused damage to the lawmaker’s property and so him getting a Watan card is not a big deal.

Pir Karam Ali Shah was appointed Gilgit-Baltistan’s first deputy chief executive – a portfolio equal to the present chief minister – in 1994 after the then Benazir government introduced a political package for the region for the first time. He is also a member of the current assembly of Gilgit-Baltistan.

G-B Education Minister Dr Ali Madad Sher, who is also a resident of the same district, said that 813 flood-stricken families have been given Watan cards in his district and Pir Karam Ali Shah is one of them. “He is one of them though his estimated losses are over Rs70 – Rs80 million,” said the minister, adding that those affected by floods have been given cards irrespective of their financial positions.

Recently in Daira Din Panah Watan cards worth Rs20,000 were sold by flood victims for Rs80,000 to Rs85,000. After the government’s announcement that flood victims would receive Rs100,000 as total compensation for their losses, many have begun to sell off their Watan cards to the highest bidder.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 12^th, 2010.