Sindh police to greet Imran on his arrival in Islamabad: Sharjeel

Hundreds of the contingents of Sindh police personnel are being sent to Islamabad to greet Imran Khan’s arrival in the federal capital.

Sindh Information Minister Sharjeel Inam Memon said this on Monday as he reacted to the address by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman at the PTI Rawalpindi workers convention.

Memon said the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) had always believed in carrying out peaceful and democratic struggle and its recent long march led by PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari had ended peacefully after reaching its destination.

The PPP’s last long march did not intend to end at D-Chowk in Islamabad, he said. “Our long march was not meant to invade Islamabad or target our national institutions.” The information minister remarked that hypocrisy and cowardice shown by Khan were unmatchable. He added that the PTI chairman had been administering oath of allegiance to make workers of the PTI scapegoats.

He said Khan had been alluding to Jihad in his speeches in order to play with the sentiments of his followers and compel them to invade Islamabad. Memon said that the recent audio leaks had exposed the real face of the PTI chairman and he should first be held accountable for his involvement in money laundering, horse trading and corruption. He warned that in case of any law and order issue caused by Khan, all the national institutions would discharge their responsibilities as per the law and constitution.

Flood relief efforts

Meanwhile, sharing the recent flood situation in the province, Memon said in a press statement that as many as 71,130 flood-affected persons had returned to their abodes from relief camps during the last 48 hours.

Currently, 273,667 flood-hit people, including 81,126 children and 62,399 women, were present in the flood relief camps and tent cities across the province, he explained, adding that according to a report of the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA), 15,449 flood victims were present in the relief camps in the Karachi division, 71,679 in Hyderabad, 48,373 in Sukkur, 48,630 in Shaheed Benazirabad, 69,633 in Larkana and 19,903 in Mirpurkhas divisions.

The information minister said that 770 people, including 325 children and 143 women, had died in the rain and flood-related incidents and 8,422 persons sustained injuries due to the natural calamity.

He added that 1,881,101 houses had been damaged due to the floods, of which 722,079 were fully collapsed, and hundreds of thousands of houses could not be used for residential purposes as they required extensive repairs.

At least 28,675 families had been delivered ration bags and 1,800 tents had also been distributed among the flood-hit people in the last 24 hours, the minister said and added that so far, a total of 1,495,773 families had been delivered ration bags. So far, a total of 599,918 tents, 535,215 plastic tarpaulin sheets, 3,140,036 mosquito nets, 28,000 animal mosquito nets, 800,323 litres of mineral water, 68,000 jerry cans and other essential relief items had been distributed among the displaced people, Memon explained.

He said that over 13 million flood-affected people had been provided with health facilities to treat cases of malaria, diarrhoea, dengue, and respiratory and skin diseases.