Khursheed slams lackluster relief efforts in Chitral

CHITRAL: Terming the government’s efforts to rehabilitate earthquake-hit people as lackluster, leader of the opposition in the National Assembly, Syed Khursheed Shah, Tuesday threatened to launch a protest campaign if sufficient relief was not extended to the calamity affected dwellers of the district.

“The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) should have intensified the rehabilitation activities ahead of crippling winter,” the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leader told a gathering here.
He lamented the government failure to address the problems of the earthquake affected people despite repeated reminders by the opposition.Khursheed Shah said the opposition wanted the government to launch relief and rehabilitation activities, adding that the opposition would be forced to launch a protest campaign if the government ignored them.
He said that the prime minister had been informed that the Sindh government would provide 10,000 bags of flour, three generators of 250 kilowatt power and subsidised wheat seeds.
The PPP leader said that his party government had launched work on the Lowari Tunnel project to connect the mountainous district to the rest of the country throughout the year.
Khursheed Shah and Qamar Zaman Kaira assured the people that they would discuss their problems on the floor of the assembly.
Elected representatives including District Nazim Maghfirat Shah, presented demands of the people, including compensation to the affected people, opening of Lowari Tunnel for maximum duration for general public and provision of subsidised seeds to farmers.
Our correspondent in Dir adds: Leader of the opposition in the National Assembly Syed Khursheed Shah said on Tuesday that no institution including the judiciary took notice of irregularities in the Nandipur and Metro bus projects in Punjab.
Addressing a gathering of workers here, he said that judiciary and media were used only against the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP).
Former ministers Qamar Zaman Kaira and Najmuddin Khan, PPP provincial president Khan Zada Khan, former deputy speaker National Assembly Faisal Karim Kundi, former provincial minister Zahir Ali Shah, and others were also present.
Khursheed Shah said that the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor project was the brainchild of the previous PPP-led federal government. He said that now other political parties were taking credit for it.