Imran says oil tanker incident a national tragedy

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan and other senior leaders on Sunday expressed deep grief and sorrow over what they called a national tragedy in Ahmadpur Sharqia, Bahawalpur, urging the government to ensure the best possible treatment to the injured victims.

Imran said that the tragedy was heart-breaking and was a national tragedy and expressed grief over the loss of so many precious lives and offered sympathies to the grieving families. He urged the administration to ensure the best possible medical treatment to those burnt in the tragedy and directed his local party leaders and also workers to join the rescue operations.

PTI Vice Chairman leader Shah Mahmood Qureshi rushed to the site of a deadly oil tanker fire after he heard about the tragedy.  Speaking to media persons on the occasion, Qureshi lambasted the PML-N government for failing to set up adequate medical facilities or burn units in Bahawalpur and South Punjab.

He said that if such incident had happened in Lahore, all administration would have been present on the occasion.

Had the administration cordoned off this area timely, this human tragedy could have been prevented. But administration or police failed to even show up at the site of the tanker crash for one and half an hour, he lamented. The safety measures could not be taken. Bahwalpur is not only a district, it’s a divisional headquarters. And yet it doesn’t have a single burn unit. Our priorities are not correct. There are no hospitals. People have no access to safe drinking water. The government, he noted, has been spending billions of rupees on metros and Orange Train.

South Punjab continues to face a sense of deprivation. This is the 10th year of the PML-N being in power. Where are the billions of rupees allocated for the development of south Punjab, he questioned. PTI Secretary General Jehangir Tareen also sympathised with the victims’ families and wished early recovery of the wounded in the inferno.

Meanwhile, PTI Spokesperson Fawad Chaudhry criticised Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif for leaving the nation in grief and sorrow to celebrate Eid in London while the army chief was busy in holding meetings on security. He alleged it was the manifestation of prime minister’s priorities to leave Pakistan in tragedies, charging that barring corruption, he had no interest in any matter in Pakistan. Fawad alleged that the London flats were purchased with the looted money of public and slammed him for holding a news conference in London on the subject. He accused the prime minister of ignoring all the state institutions, including the Supreme Court.