Govt urged to facilitate safe return of people to Bajaur

KHAR: Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam- Fazl (JUI-F), Bajaur chapter, on Sunday asked the government to take practical steps for the safe return of thousands of residents of the district currently stranded in other parts of the country.

Speaking at a press conference, JUI district chief Maulana Abdur Rashid, Maulana Muhammad Laiq, Maulana Ziaullah Khan Haqqani, Said Badshah and others said that thousands of residents of Bajaur had been stranded in different parts of the country.

They said the poor labourers and workers along with their families were facing hunger and starvation due to the lockdown owing to the coronavirus pandemic across the country. They alleged that the government was neither providing them food items or financial help nor taking any steps to bring them back to the native towns in Bajaur. They said that most of the labourers had been evicted from their residential abodes and now had no money to come to their homes.

The JUI leaders claimed that thousands of labourers and workers from Bajaur district were virtually stranded in Sindh, Punjab and Balochistan provinces, but neither the federal government nor the respective provincial governments included them in the relief package. They termed it an injustice with the poor labourers to deprive them of relief package. “Though there is no work because of lockdown in the country, the poor labourers are facing multiple problems, including shortage of food items, financial constraints and living in rented homes,” Maulana Abdur Rashid said. He also demanded an end to the political interference in the distribution of relief package, saying that ration and financial assistance should be provided to the poor and deserving people irrespective of their political affiliation through government employees and police. The JUI leaders condemned the highhandedness against the members of Tablighi Jamaat, adding that coronavirus pandemic should not be linked to any religious or political group. They said that it was a global issue and unleashing a negative propaganda against the religious preachers was against the religion of Islam and human values.