14 February 2005	Monday	04 Muharram 1426

KARACHI, Feb 13: The Pakistan People's Party on Saturday expressed deep anguish at the alleged government apathy over the plight of those who were affected by heavy rains, snow falls and floods in different parts of the country.

In a statement, PPP information secretary Taj Haider said that while neither advance preparation was made nor relief was provided by the government in time. He also alleged that the government did not know the extent of the loss of life, the damage or even the places where people were marooned without food supplies.

He said that forecasts about the current spell of rains and snowfalls had been highlighted by the media for a long time and the government had sufficient time to adopt contingency measures to save human lives in flooding zones and move stocks of food supplies in areas likely to be cut off due to floods or heavy snowfalls.

Oblivious of the fact that there were small dams like Shadikor in Balochistan, which could not take the pressure of high floods and which if burst would wipe out village after village, he alleged that the government was only calculating reduction in its deficit expected from increased generation of hydle power in big irrigation dams.