Sindh ministers ‘nowhere to be seen’ amid floods: Ali Zaidi

Former federal minister Syed Ali Haider Zaidi has said that millions of people displaced and devastated first by heavy rains and then by floods and man-made cuts and breaches were forced to live under sub-human conditions across the province.

During his visit to flooded-hit areas of Larkana on Sunday, the PTI leader distributed relief goods among the affected people along with other party leaders and workers. He alleged that tens of thousands of the people who took shelter along the roadsides across the people had been left at the mercy of mosquitos and viral infections, with no relief items and medicines for several hundred ailing flood-affected people.

He said that the ministers of the Sindh cabinet, who were also appointed as the focal persons during rain emergencies and providing rescue and relief to people of devastated districts, were nowhere to be seen to help the displaced people in their testing times. “The anger of people is brewing and the situation might turn ugly turn in most parts of the ravaged districts if people are not provided with the required relief items,” the PTI leader warned.

Zaidi alleged that farmlands and towns of Sindh were flooded by irrigation officials to save the agricultural lands of PPP leaders and influential political figures of the province. “This is more of a man-made disaster than a natural calamity — since the entire drainage system of the province including RBOD and LBOD had been in shambles, despite billions of rupees spent on the maintenance of their dykes by the rulers of Sindh,” he further alleged.

The PTI leader lashed out at PPP leader Senator Nisar Ahmed Khuhro for his remarks against them after they arrived in Larkana to distribute relief items among the affectees. He urged Khuhro to stop politics of blame game and asked him to dedicate his energies to the flood-hit people of Larkana. He said that when most parts of the country were underwater National Assembly Speaker Raja Pervez Ashraf along with other members of parliament were on an official tour to Canada.

He claimed that huge funds looted by PPP rulers and leaders during their 14-year-old rule in Sindh if recovered would be more than enough for the rescue and rehabilitation of around 10 million people of the province. The PTI leader accused Sindh ministers of making money from the funds donated by other countries and organizations to provide relief to millions of the people of the province. “This is insulting and shameful that those already involved in scams of billions were asked to look after the relief operation,” he commented. Zaidi also said that PTI Chairman Imran Khan was expected to arrive in Sukkur today (Monday).

Hanif Samoon is a senior journalist based at Thar/Badin and contributes reports from different districts of Sindh to Minute Mirror. He has won a number of awards, including the Agahi Award twice for his stories on health and child rights. He tweets @HanifSamoon1 and can be reached through email at [email protected]