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| July 5, 2005 | Tuesday | Jumadi-ul-Awwal 27, 1426 |
NWFP seeks cash for flood relief
PESHAWAR, July 4: NWFP Chief Minister Akram Khan Durrani has informed international donors and relief agencies that his government needs cash rather than food items, tents and medicines for the flood-stricken people of the province. Speaking on losses suffered by people living along the banks of rivers Swat and Kabul in Charsadda, Nowshera and Dera Ismail Khan and relief goods provided by the federal, Punjab and Sindh governments in the NWFP Assembly on Monday, he said the province needed cash and not relief goods.
He thanked chief ministers of Punjab and Sindh for providing Rs100 million for flood victims of the province. He also thanked the Balochistan chief minister for expressing concern over the losses wrought by the floods.
Mr Durrani said Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz had sanctioned Rs100 million for development schemes in the flood-hit areas, but the amount was insufficient. He appealed to the premier to provide some cash to the NWFP so that it could meet demands of the flood victims.
He observed that owing to precautionary measures taken by the government, no loss of life had been reported from any flood zone.
Mr Durrani has waived the agriculture income tax and water tax (abiana) of farmers residing in all the union councils battered by the devastating floodwater.
He informed the house that the government had sent health teams along with medicines to the affected areas. There was no shortage of food in the areas. However, people were reluctant to stay in tents as it was not their culture, he added.
He said that he had asked district coordination officers (DCOs) to visit the affected villages along with area MPAs and provide the required assistance to the people there.
He said the government had chalked out both short-term and long-term programmes to control the flood-related damages in the future. He said he had provided Rs100 million to the Relief Commissioner to meet the emergency expenditures in the flood zone.
Mr Durrani said he would provide more funds for the purpose.
Earlier, opposition leader Shahzada Gustasip said calamities had no fixed time as they could occur anytime, anywhere in the world. “But it is our duty to take precautionary measures to save the people and control the damage,” he added.
He said the government had last year declared Kaghan and Kohistan calamity-hit areas, but it didn’t provide any relief to the people affected by torrential rains. He advised the NWFP government to waive water tax, land tax and agriculture income tax in the flood-affected districts.
Nasreen Khattak of the Pakistan People’s Party (Sherpao) asked opposition and treasury benches not to capitalize on the suffering of the flood victims. She said it was inhuman to advance political agendas on people’s misery.
She said: “We welcome financial aid for our hapless people and we appeal to human rights organizations to come forward and help our people overtaken by the disaster.”
Maulana Mujahidul Hussain from Nowshera thanked the Al-Rasheed Trust, a noted international Islamic relief body, for providing food to the flood victims in Nowshera villages.
Abdul Majid Khan, Maulana Mohammad Idress, Maulana Nizamuddin, Mufti Hussain Ahmed, Maulana Musamar Shah, Mian Nadir Shah, Felix Innocent and Maulana Irfanullah of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal, Sikandar Hayat Sherpao, Makhdoom Mureed Kazim and Arshid Khan of the PPP-S, Shahzadi Muniba, Salma Babar, Abdul Akbar Khan, Qurban Ali and Tariq Hameed Khattak of the PPPP, Bashir Ahmed Bilour, Khalil Abbas Khan and Mukhtiar Khan of the Awami National Party, Qalandar Lohdi and Night Orakzai of the Pakistan Muslim League (Q) spoke on the miseries of the flood victims.
Later, Bashir Ahmed Bilour from the opposition and Syed Amant Shah of the MMA presented identical resolutions, demanding that the federal government withdraw recent hike in POL prices and give relief to the general masses.
The resolution urged the government to provide subsidy to people on petroleum products and exempt the flood-hit people from payment of utility bills.
The house adopted both the resolution unanimously with a minor amendment proposed by Sikandar Hayat Sherpao.
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