ISLAMABAD, Oct 14: Opposition members in the National Assembly on Friday lashed out at the government for what they called its “slow response” to the earthquake disaster and mismanagement in the ongoing relief operation in the affected areas.
Responding to the opposition’s criticism, some federal and state ministers highlighted the steps being taken by the government to provide relief to the people in Azad Kashmir and the NWFP and asked the opposition to refrain from “unnecessary criticism” at this critical moment.
The most hard-hitting speech came from PML-N MNA Tehmina Daultana who questioned the “delayed response” by the Pakistan Army to the earthquake disaster. She said that during her visit to the affected areas, the people told her that countless number of army men were present in their houses in Abbottabad at the time the tragedy struck, but they were not seen in the field soon afterwards.
Ms Daultana said there was a military academy in Abbottabad, but soon after the disaster the cadets were asked to go home. “It is strange that instead of sending them (the cadets) to the disaster-hit areas to help the people, they were sent home,” she added.
The PML-N MNA said that almost 70 per cent of the country’s budget was spent to meet defence needs, but now the nation had come to know that there were only seven helicopters in Pakistan.
“Where are our helicopters? Are they still busy in Waziristan operation?”, she asked, adding: “If the helicopters are busy in Waziristan, then please stop the operation for the time being.”
Ms Daultana said that Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif should be allowed to come to Pakistan as there was a need for national unity.
The speaker expunged a few remarks which Ms Daultana had passed while winding up her speech.
Minister of State for Interior Dr Shahzad Waseem asked the opposition members not to bring army and people across each other only to serve their “self-interests”. He praised the Pakistani troops for carrying out relief activities after the calamity.
Federal Minister for Water and Power Liaquat Jatoi announced that the government had decided not to collect any dues or electricity bills from the people in the affected areas for three months. He said that his ministry had been working day and night to restore power supply to the stricken areas and electricity had already been restored in several areas, including Muzaffarabad.
Kunwar Khalid Younus of MQM called for constituting a parliamentary committee to review the performance of the National Crisis Management Cell. “If any person has shown carelessness, then he must be grilled by the committee,” he said.
Mr Younus said that the collapse of Margalla Towers in Islamabad had exposed corruption in the Capital Development Authority (CDA). He said the apartment block was reportedly owned by a man who was simply a draftsman in the CDA. “There are still hundreds of such officers in the CDA and they should all be brought before the parliamentary committee,” he said.
Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan said most of the people had come to know about the scale of the earthquake disaster by Saturday evening, but the government was not giving correct figures.
Mr Khan said that there was no coordination between the local administration, local government representatives and the army in the stricken areas. He alleged that the government had totally failed in the rescue phase as hundreds of people, particularly schoolchildren, kept on crying for help from the debris for three days, but no one listened to them.
The PTI chief was of the view that the army should have been mobilized and moved in these areas within five to six hours. He said now large convoys of relief goods were heading towards the disaster-hit areas, but there was no coordination and people did not know where to distribute these items.
He said there were still a large number of areas where no-one had reached to provide relief. He stressed the need for preparing a clean plan for relief and rehabilitation. He claimed that the people in Azad Kashmir were angry over the government’s response to the tragedy.
Refuting Mr Khan’s claim, Federal Law Minister Wasi Zafar said the people of Azad Kashmir were in fact very happy as they had now got enough food and water. He, however, admitted that there was a shortage of tents in these areas. He claimed that the relief operation was now being carried out in an organized manner. He asked Imran Khan to join the government’s efforts.
Federal Minister for Health Nasir Khan said that it was a huge human tragedy and even the World Health Organization (WHO) had described it as a bigger disaster than tsunami. He said most of the rescued people had head and spinal injuries. So far some 2,300 serious operations had been performed at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) alone.
The minister said that there were 60 doctors in Balakot, but none of them survived in the tragedy. He said several teams of surgeons and doctors had already been sent to the affected areas while foreign countries had started establishing field hospitals.
He said that special teams were being constituted to retrieve bodies in Balakot and other affected areas.
People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPP) MNA Raja Pervez Ashraf said there were reports in the foreign and local media some four years ago that a powerful earthquake could hit South Asia. Despite clear warnings, he said, the government had not formulated any crisis management policy.
The speaker adjourned the session until Saturday morning.
