Bilawal tells Sindh ministers to ensure rainwater is drained from all areas

Chairman Pakistan Peoples Party Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has directed the Sindh ministers to stay out on the streets till the last drop of rainwater is drained away from every city, town and village of the province.

Speaking to Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah, Minister for Local Government Nasir Hussain Shah and Minister for Public Health Engineering Mir Shabir Ali Bijarani on the telephone on Saturday, he appreciated the Sindh cabinet members for working on the ground through better coordination.

Local Government Minister Nasir Shah apprised the party chairman about the areas that had been cleared of rainwater

in Karachi, Hyderabad, Larkana, Sukkur and Mirpurkhas. He said drainage operations were in full swing everywhere in the province.

The public health engineering minister informed the PPP chairman that due to an overflowing irrigation system, the drainage of rainwater was slow in different parts of the province, but all the resources available with the Public Health Engineering Department had been geared up to drain away the rainwater, besides preventing irrigation canals from developing breaches.

Bilawal asked the chief minister and his cabinet ministers to conduct a damage assessment so that timely rehabilitation could be carried out.

He also expressed deep grief and sorrow over the loss of human lives in Sindh and all over the country, and asked the federal and provincial governments to announce adequate compensations for families who lost their near and dear ones, and for those who lost their livelihoods during the worst monsoon rains witnessed in decades.

A day earlier, Bilawal had directed the Sindh government to ensure that the citizens in all rain-hit areas across the province were timely provided with relief services.

On a telephone call, Bilawal told Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah to conduct a province-wide survey on the damages and losses to the public and private properties “for intensifying the relief work, beginning a rehabilitation process and completing the restoration of road communication”, said a press statement.

It said that at the time of talking to Bilawal on phone, the chief minister was on the ground to assess the situation following “the worst monsoon spell which has tormented almost the entire province, including its agriculture sector, which is the backbone of the national as well as the provincial economy”.

On the telephone call, Bilawal said the entire province had suffered and growers had incurred heavy losses as “their standing crops have been washed away by the unprecedented torrential rains”.

He asked the chief minister to seek help from the federal government to cope up the worrisome situation and hoped that the Centre would play its constitutional role for bringing the province’s economy back to normalcy.

Earlier on Wednesday, Bilawal had said the PPP believed in serving the people of Sindh without any discrimination.

Talking to the party’s office-bearers from District West, Bilawal said the people of Karachi had braved the most intense monsoon rains in the history.

“I am proud that from the Sindh chief minister to a common activist of the party and members of the Sindh Assembly remained among the masses. The people of Karachi now see as who stand with them during times of crisis,” he said.

In his meeting with MPA Shamim Mumtaz, Bilawal said those who practised the politics of hatred had made an attempt to make Karachi a problematic city. “But we together with the masses will tackle this situation.”