KARACHI (HRNW) -Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) Karachi division senior vice president and former MNA Faheem Khan on Friday expressed grave concern over the devastation caused by floods across the country and criticised the federal and provincial governments for their criminal negligence in the face of the calamity.
Speaking to the media at Insaf House, Mr Faheem Khan said several districts of Punjab had been ravaged by the worst flooding in nearly four decades after India released water and heavy rains lashed the province. “As many as 1,400 villages are under water, crops spread over hundreds of acres have been destroyed, more than one million people have been affected, and over 15 lives have been lost in just the past 24 hours,” he said.
He lamented that despite the looming crisis, neither the federal government nor the Punjab administration had taken any precautionary measures.
The PTI leader warned that Sindh could be the next victim of large-scale flooding but alleged that the Pakistan Peoples Party’s provincial government was “waiting to embezzle relief funds instead of safeguarding the people.”
“From the irrigation minister down to members of the Sindh cabinet, all are busy pocketing funds rather than fortifying the province’s embankments,” he claimed, adding that billions allocated for strengthening canal banks had not been accounted for.
Mr Faheem Khan further alleged that preparations were underway “to deliberately breach embankments of Sindh’s canals to drown multiple towns under a sinister conspiracy,” while the Met department had already issued fresh warnings of heavy rains across the province.
The PTI leader said Karachi faced clear risks of urban flooding yet “the Sindh government and the city’s mayor have done nothing.”
“Water from previous rains is still stagnant in several areas of Karachi, and the recent downpours have left 40 per cent of the city’s roads battered,” he said, adding that during the last spell, 19 people lost their lives and thousands of vehicles were damaged, but no compensation had been given to victims.
He demanded that Punjab must fully compensate its flood-affected citizens, just as the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government had done, and called for immediate emergency measures in Sindh.
Mr Faheem Khan said the mismanagement and incompetence of federal and provincial governments had left citizens desperate. “The nation is now looking towards its beloved leader Imran Khan. Decision-makers must wake up and release him immediately,” he asserted.
The PTI leader added that Mr Faheem Khan had steered Pakistan through the Covid-19 crisis and prevented the country from defaulting. “Today, however, these so-called governments born out of Form-47 have brought Pakistan to the brink of destruction due to corruption and indifference to public service,” he concluded.
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