PESHAWAR: Various political parties on Saturday criticised the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa over what they called its failure to provide timely relief to the victims of rain-related incidents and asked the chief minister to fulfil his duties instead of participating in rallies and sit-ins.

The rainstorm left at least 18 people dead and dozens injured on Friday night in parts of Peshawar.

PML-N provincial president Pir Sabir Shah told a news conference here that during his visit to the Lady Reading Hospital, he had observed that the people, who had suffered injuries during incidents related to rain and thunderstorm, were crying in vain for medical attention.

“The injured complained to us during a visit that except the initial first-aid, they were not provided proper medical care at the hospital,” he said, adding that even those with injuries had to pay Rs50 each for getting wheelchair.

Shah said unfortunately, all provincial ministers, including the chief minister and health minister, were participating in the so-called Azadi March on Islamabad, so officials of the health department and relevant hospitals had neglected patients.

Parties say CM should prefer duty to rallies

He said there were two main hospitals in the provincial capital, which had the capacity to cater to the needs of the people and that hundreds of the injured were treated during bomb blasts but currently, the situation was worsening.

The PML-N leader feared if the government didn’t provide immediate relief and treatment to the people, they would suffer from fatal diseases due to infections.

He said in the past, there were arrangements for spray in different localities to secure the people from different diseases but the government had failed to do so.

Shah claimed the PML-N government in Punjab had sent 20 trucks carrying relief items for the calamity-hit people of Peshawar and that it would continue with relief work.

He said taking out rallies and staging sit-ins were useless and that the PTI leadership should serve the people, who had voted them to power.

Similarly, Pakistan People’s Party provincial general secretary Engineer Mohammad Hamayun Khan criticised the government over damage to public life and property due to rainstorm.

In a statement, he said the provincial government had failed to serve the people in the hour of need as its key men preferred to stay in Islamabad to participate in the party’s long march.

The PPP leader asked the provincial government to fulfil its prime responsibilities on war footing by providing medical treatment to the injured and ration and shelter to the needy people in the province.

Meanwhile, Qaumi Watan Party parliamentary leader in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly Sikandar Hayat Khan Sherpao on Saturday said the PTI provincial government failed to provide relief to the rainstorm-hit people.

He said during a visit to various parts of the provincial capital to sympathise with the families in distress.

Speaking on the occasion, he said the QWP shared grief of the bereaved families and would not leave them in the lurch.

He said the rainstorm disrupted routine life and damaged properties apart from causing the loss of life, no minister or government official bothered to visit the grief-stricken families in order to console them.

“The chief minister and PTI ministers should have been in the provincial capital to ensure mitigation of the misery of the affected families instead of getting themselves involved in non-issues,” he said.

Sherpao said power supply was still suspended to many localities, where the residents faced acute shortage of clean drinking water.

He said the rainwater had inundated the low-lying areas, but no step had been taken to pump out the water.

The QWP leader asked the government to assess damages and unveil a comprehensive financial package to compensate victims.

He said the PTI government had miserably failed to fulfil the party’s pledges made to the people during the election campaign for 2013 general elections.

Published in Dawn, August 17th, 2014