‘No child deaths from hunger, negligence in Thar’

Shah pins blame on nature rather than the government's poor performance

KARACHI:

Not a single death of a child has occurred owing to hunger and medical negligence in Tharparkar district, claimed Sindh chief minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah while addressing the Sindh Assembly on Monday. He said that he would tender an apology if his statement was disproved.

Shah, after listening to the fiery speeches of the opposition MPAs on this issue, pinned the blame on nature rather than the government's poor performance. Ruling out hunger as a cause of death, he said that the government had been providing the residents of drought-hit areas in the district with subsidised and free wheat, worth Rs2 billion, for the past six years. "Child mortality is a core issue not only in Pakistan, but the entire region," he said. "Will the media also share what Thar was like before Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) came to power in 2008? The situation was worse than it is today."

The CM also briefed the house about the induction of 46 new doctors and a new hospital with an estimated cost of Rs600 million being built in the district.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 28^th, 2014.