Political parties set up relief centres for heatwave victims

Karachi
Political parties have established relief centres in Karachi to help people being afflicted by the current heatwave.
Muttahida Qaumi Movement chief Altaf Hussain summoned his leaders and office- bearers at the party’s headquarters, Nine Zero, and directed them to boycott all government functions and put all their energies into assisting those affected by the persisting heatwave in the city.
The death toll from the killer heatwave over the past four days has exceeded 700 in the city.
Hussain ordered the establishment of heatstroke cenres in the city and provision of oral rehydration solution to the affected people.
Ambulances of the Khidmat-e-Khalq Foundation, the party’s charity wing, besides doctors of the medical aid committee and paramedic staff, must be present at all centres, he added.
The MQM founder advised the Coordination Committee to provide medical assistance to patients immediately.
He said that the KKF and the medical aid committee should support all operations on the field and provide not only medical assistance but also mineral water and ORS to the heat victims.
The committee set up the first relief centre at Taj Mahal Banquette near 4K Chowrangi. The centre is equipped with the necessary medicines and medical and paramedical staff.
Jalal Mehmood Shah, chief of the Sindh United Party, expressing his grief over the deaths of hundreds of people due to heatstroke with electricity cuts adding to the misery of the common man, said the only solution to the crisis was catching power thieves.
He said the government should take to task “big fish” involved in corruption. He was of the view that it was impossible for the government to run big institutions like Hesco and Wapda. He suggested that the electricity supply should be assigned to smaller companies on a short-term basis.
Bringing corruption to an end would automatically change the situation, Shah said.
Haleem Adil Sheikh, president of the Pakistan Muslim League-Q, held the government was responsible for the deaths in Karachi.
At this crucial juncture, all opposition parties are on the same page and have principally decided not to attend any functions of the government, including Iftar parties.
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s Karachi chapter president Ali Zaidi demanded resignation from Abid Sher Ali as federal state minister for water and power for his “callous attitude” towards Karachi, saying that the federal government had nothing to do with the K-Electric, as it had only 26 percent of shares in the power utility.
Ali’s statement, he said, proved that the federal government had written Karachi off and was least interested in addressing its issues.
He informed that the PTI had established a crisis centre at Jinnah Hospital to provide ailing people with relief.
“It’s outrageous that electricity cannot be supplied uninterruptedly at least during Sehar and Iftar.”
He said: “Given the current heatwave in the city, it is a cruel and unusual punishment for Karachiites spending Sehar and Iftar in the dark. Please have mercy upon us.”
Zaidi remarked that the role of the regulator, Nepra, should not be of that of just setting electricity tariffs, but of protecting the interests of the consumers as well.