JI flays govt over loss of lives in Sindh, Balochistan

LAHORE:Jamaat-i-Islami leadership has reiterated that federal and provincial governments have been displaying criminal negligence towards the loss of human lives and properties by flash floods in Balochistan and Sindh.

Hundreds of human lives and thousands of cattle have been swept away while millions of people have been left homeless but government relief operations are nowhere to be seen, said Jamaat Islami naib ameer Liaqat Baloch while talking to media at Mansoorah on Monday, after returning from a week-long visit to Balochistan and Sindh.

He said due to poor constructions floodwater has wiped off villages, increasing the damage manifold, while vast areas have been submerged by floodwater. He said Karachi has been practically destroyed due to heavy rains, as all the roads have broken down and thousands of shanty houses in low-lying areas have been damaged beyond repair. Due to absence of sewage and rainwater drainage system, a tsunami of filth has engulfed the port city, he said.

He said the large-scale devastation of humans and properties has completely exposed the incompetent, corrupt, anti-human rulers, demanding that effective, immediate help should be provided to the affected families. He said federal and provincial governments are only celebrating their so-called achievements; they have nothing to offer to mitigate the plight of the people.

To a question, Baloch said the mines laid on the economic highway by Imran Khan have destroyed the coalition government, which eventually made the lives of people miserable. He said now the makeshift government is perplexed to take long-term measures to fix the economy. He lamented that the masses have been given little relief in the downslide of oil prices in the global market.

The government's pandering to IMF demand is totally disgraceful and callous, as poor people had no option but to starve against a collapsing economy under unsustainable increase in production costs, high flying dollar and widening import-export gap have jammed the industrial wheel. The business community is going bankrupt, and unemployment is constantly increasing.

He opined that overcoming the economic crisis is a hard nut to crack for the coalition government alone, and advised that the government formulated a coherent plan of action through national dialogue and meaningful negotiations with elected bodies of traders, industrialists and political leadership.