Sirajul Haq asks govt to improve relief distribution system

LAHORE: Jamaat-e-Islami ameer Senator Sirajul Haq has condemned PTI government’s “careless” mode of distribution of relief package to the poor under the Ehsah Program, resulting in deaths and injuries to dozens of poor women.

Addressing a meeting of office-bearers of provincial and district office-bearers from Mansoorah through video link on Sunday, he warned that the rulers had no right to hurt the self-respect of the people, adding that providing basic needs to locked down poor people was the basic duty of the government and it must not consider it ‘doing a favor to the masses’. He said government must take care of the miseries of those queuing up for receiving relief package, improve its distribution system and should not play with the lives of the people.

Sirajul Haq said by imposing delayed and ill-prepared lockdown, the government had itself been knocked down as it failed to make necessary arrangements for the needs of those under the lockdown. He warned that ensuring that relief reached the deserving and must not be misused was the prime responsibility of the PTI government, adding that there won’t be a greater injustice if the PTI government was unable to provide relief to the deserving people and the relief funds went to the wrong hands or pilfered.

He said small businessmen had been crushed while daily wage earners and workers were on the point of starvation, and seen begging and running for help on the roads. The scenes of stampede and snatching of relief goods have become routine. He said the government had failed to collect the data of the deserving people. He questioned if the government was distributing funds on the basis of any data.

Referring to reports of dozens of doctors and paramedics being tested positive for the coronavirus, Sirajul Haq said it was a highly serious matter. He warned that if the government failed in making foolproof arrangements for the safety of the doctors and the paramedics, the entire health system of the government would collapse and the provision of medical help to the corona cases and common patients would become difficult.

He noted that for the last one and a half months, the doctors had been protesting for the provision of safety kits but the government kept on delaying the matter. He said now there was unrest among the doctors as well as in the general public due to the incompetence of the government as its insensitivity on this score had been exposed. He said now it was evident that the safety kits received from China had not been distributed properly. He saluted the medicos for trying to save the lives of the people despite inadequate arrangements.