PM orders round-the-clock monitoring of flood-hit areas

ISLAMABAD/BEIJING: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Wednesday ordered round-the-clock monitoring of rescue, relief and rehabilitation operations in the flood-affected areas of Balochistan. He also ordered an update regarding the relief and disbursement of funds to the flood victims through submission of a report every 48 hours, a government spokesperson said.

The prime minister instructed the relevant authorities to speed up the distribution of relief funds in Balochistan, especially in areas like Bolan, Quetta, Zhob, Dakki, Khuzdar, Kohlu, Kech, Mastung, Harnai, Qila Saifullah and Sibbi.

The PM also directed to accelerate the relief and rehabilitation work in the flood-affected areas of Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab. He said the affected people were looking towards the government for mitigation of their sufferings and warned that negligence in the supply of food, medicines and accommodation would not be tolerated. He emphasised extending a uniform level of facilitation to the flood victims across the country.

The prime minister ordered to ensure proper cleaning, sanitation and fumigation of the flood-hit areas to avert the spread of diseases, including dengue. He also directed the provision of clean drinking water to flood victims to control gastric diseases.

A report by the authorities concerned informed the prime minister that the arrangement of food, medical camps and shelter had been made in the flood-hit areas of Balochistan. The report said that relief activities had been increased in collaboration with the provincial government of Balochistan, while work was in progress in the other provinces with the cooperation of respective provincial governments.

Meanwhile, China on Wednesday highly appreciated Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif for pushing ahead building of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) with new ‘Pakistan Speed’ and acknowledged his untiring efforts for advancing practical cooperation between the two countries.

“We highly appreciate the prime minister’s statements. He (Shehbaz Sharif) has done so much for practical cooperation between the two countries,” Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hua Chunying said during her regular briefing in response to a question raised by APP.

Shehbaz Sharif in a recent meeting with Chinese Ambassador to Pakistan Nong Rong underlined his commitment to unlock full economic and connectivity potential of CPEC through expedited and high-quality development of CPEC projects.

The spokesperson remarked that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif valued Pakistan’s relations with China, adding, “Shehbaz Sharif has many times reaffirmed that Pakistan will push ahead the building of CPEC with new Pakistan Speed.”

She said that after he took office, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had visited Gwadar Port twice and hosted a seminar between the Pakistani side and Chinese companies and he had done so much for our practical cooperation. “So with the guidance of the leaders of both the countries and with our concerted efforts, we are seeing a lot of progress being made on CPEC,” she added.

Hua Chunying said, “We are ready to further implement well the understandings between the leaders of our two countries and building on what we have achieved and current projects.” She went on to say that the two countries would further focus on industrial development, people’s livelihoods, agriculture, science and technology, information technology etc. to make CPEC into a demonstration project for high quality Belt and Road cooperation.

“This will go a long way for China-Pakistan relations and the China-Pakistan community with a shared future and also the well-being of the two countries and the people around the region,” she added.

During the meeting held at the PM House last week, the prime minister had emphasised the importance of key projects like the Main Line One (ML-1) and Karachi Circular Railway (KCR) in Pakistan’s development plans and expressed his desire to move towards finalisation of these projects in the upcoming 11th meeting of the CPEC Joint Cooperation Committee.