Ministers face trouble in PA trying to defend govt’s post-rain efforts

Sindh’s ministers had a hard time in the provincial assembly on Thursday as they tried defending the performance of the government as regards emergency relief and drainage after several rural and urban areas faced catastrophic conditions due to the recent heavy monsoon rains.

Opposition lawmakers highlighted the troubled times faced by the residents of several districts of Sindh, including Karachi, due to the devastation caused by the downpours.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) MPA Khurrum Sher Zaman was the first to highlight the sufferings of the people in the city in the aftermath of the heavy rains as he spoke on a point of order in the House.

The legislator said that much time had passed since the recent spell of showers ended but the accumulated rainwater kept a number of streets and roads in the city submerged.

He said the provincial government and its subsidiary municipal agencies in the city had failed to ensure the drainage of rainwater in several localities despite the passage of several days since the rains.

He also said the local government minister should brief the PA about the steps being taken by the provincial government to mitigate the sufferings of the residents of the city due to the downpours.

Zaman said the provincial government should provide a time frame in which the sanitation and drainage situation in the city would be normalised. He said the provincial government should adopt emergency measures to improve the worsening drainage and sanitation conditions in various parts of the city.

Grand Democratic Alliance MPA Arif Mustafa Jatoi mentioned that the destruction caused by the recent heavy rains was not just confined to Karachi because the residents of several rural parts of Sindh had been facing a miserable situation after the downpours.

The lawmaker said that heavy rains had caused flooding in several towns of the province as the residents of the Matiari, Moro and Padidan areas in particular had been facing hardships due to the inundation of their farmlands and residential areas.

He showed pictures of flooded agricultural and residential lands in the affected towns. He appealed to the provincial government to announce compensation for the affected farmers to make up for the loss of crops and livestock because of the heavy rains.

Jatoi said that the native areas of several MPAs on the treasury benches had been facing an emergency after the heavy showers but they chose to keep quiet in the House because their speeches would expose the poor performance of the provincial government.

He said he was also speaking on behalf of those treasury legislators who chose to remain silent and not highlight the miseries of the residents of their constituencies.

PTI lawmaker Riaz Haider speaking on his calling-attention notice highlighted the worsening civic and municipal conditions after the heavy rains in the areas of his Karachi constituency PS-130. He said the troubled situation in his area was evident from the recent Shadman storm water drain tragedy.

Responding to the speeches of the opposition lawmakers, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Mukesh Kumar Chawla assured the House that the provincial government would announce a compensation package for the affected farmers whose crops and farmlands had been damaged due to the heavy rains.

He said the announcement would be made after the end of the monsoon season and after a proper assessment of all the damages of the farmers. He also said the chief minister, all the members of his cabinet, and senior government and civic officials had been in the affected areas to personally supervise the emergency drainage and relief work after the heavy rains.

Chawla said that the unprecedented heavy rains had occurred in several parts of the province this season, adding that a total of 700mm of rain had been recorded over the past 25 to 27 days.

Local Government Minister Syed Nasir Hussain Shah said that due to the extraordinary corrective measures adopted by the provincial government well in time, several troubled spots in Karachi, including Sharea Faisal, did not face urban flooding or inundation due to undrained rainwater.