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Friday March 29, 2024

‘All of us responsible for deaths in Karachi’

Qadir Baloch says sit-in of Sindh CM was a drama for point-scoring

By our correspondents
June 27, 2015
KARACHI: The Minister for States and Frontier Regions (Safron), Lt Gen (retd) Abdul Qadir Baloch, has termed the sit-in of the Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah against power loadshedding in Karachi a drama for point-scoring and said all of them were responsible for over 1,000 deaths in the mega city.
The minister, who came here to inquire about the factual position on the recent deaths due to the heatwave on the instructions of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, said that action would be taken against all those found involved in recent deaths in the city.
Addressing a press conference at the Karachi Press Club on Friday along with Minister for National Health Services Saira Afzal Tarar and Senator Salim Zia of the PML-N, Baloch put the entire onus on the provincial government as he said departments and institutions such as the Water and Sewerage Board, KMC, even K-Electric, does not fall in the ambit of the Centre and if the federal government interferes in the provincial affairs, then the Sindh government would have objected to that.
Saira Tarar said the entire team of the PML-N had arrived in the city to help out the provincial government at their time of difficulty.Baloch also informed the media that very soon Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif will visit the city.
“We are here to express and convey the prime minister’s sentiments who too is saddened on this tragedy,” the minister said. Without mincing words, he said an investigation was being carried out against the tragic event and the government would even not hesitate in taking over K-Electric if it was found involved in any negligence.
“But before an investigation, blaming anyone is not correct,” he said, adding that action would taken after an inquiry. He tendered an apology for coming late to Karachi, and cited the reason that they were busy in the budget session.
He, however, said that neither the federal nor the provincial government could be blamed for deaths as it was a natural calamity. “Unfortunately, we were not prepared for such kinds of incidents,” he said.
The minister stated that they first visited the Jinnah Post Graduate Medical Centre (JPMC) and later visited the Civil Hospital, Abbasi Shaheed Hospital and Edhi mortuary and viewed that people did not know how to deal with such situations.
He was quiet satisfied that philanthropists had contributed a lot.“The government is seriously investigating the causes of deaths and no one found involved in negligence would be spared,” he said.
The minister admitted it was the responsibility of all us to provide all resources and protection to the people but after the 18th Amendment, service delivery was the provincial government’s responsibility. He declared that it was a natural calamity and we should learn a lesson from it and be prepared for such events in future, adding that more than 90 percent casualties had occurred in Karachi.
He mentioned that the federal government was present in every province in the form of the army. The Rangers and the army were being activated from the day one to tackle the situation.
About the BBC report on the MQM, the minister said the allegations were of serious nature and it was the MQM’s job to clear the party of these allegations, adding that a legal course of action could be taken in this regard.He said Nepra was there for regulating the K-Electric and Khawaja Asif’s statement on Wapda had no connection with this.