Govt told to form parliamentary body to investigate Thar issue

Published November 12, 2014
Several MQM members of the Sindh Assembly stand up to support their colleague, Mohammed Hussain, who insisted during the Tuesday proceedings that the Sindh government failed to tackle the Thar drought situation properly.—Online
Several MQM members of the Sindh Assembly stand up to support their colleague, Mohammed Hussain, who insisted during the Tuesday proceedings that the Sindh government failed to tackle the Thar drought situation properly.—Online

KARACHI: The Sindh Assembly on Tuesday asked the government to constitute a parliamentary committee that should visit the drought-hit Thar district to investigate the prevailing conditions there and suggest measures to prevent such situation in future.

The demand for formation of the committee with representation of all political parties in the house was part of a resolution, which was tabled by Leader of the Opposition Shaharyar Khan Mahar of the PML-F, passed unanimously by the assembly after a threadbare discussion on it by a dozen of lawmakers.

The resolution reads: “The provincial government is in a state of denial with regard to the loss of lives in Thar due to drought. Every day we see in different newspapers reports regarding the present situation in Thar. Even chairperson of the ruling party in the province has taken notice of the situation.

“In such circumstances rather than clearing and politicising the issue, the government should form a committee that should include members from all political parties to probe this issue so that such incidents are not repeated in future.”

Although every member was keen to express his views on the issue but only 17 lawmakers could make it due to want of time. The legislators were Shaharyar Mahar, Nusrat Sahar Abbasi, Mehtab Akbar Rashdi and Saeed Nizamnai of the PML-F, Dr Saghir Ahmad, Khwaja Izharul Hasan, Syed Faisal Sabzwari, Mohammad Hussain Khan, Raana Ansar, Rauf Siddiqui, Dilwara Khan of the MQM and Dr Sikandar Mandhro, Dr Jam Mehtab Dahar, Sharjeel Inam Memon, Pessumal, Jam Khan Shoro and Dr Khatumal Jeewan of the PPP.

The lawmakers from the opposition benches were critical of the government. They said reports from Thar indicated as if the government was doing nothing to mitigate the sufferings of the Tharis. They said it seemed that people were finding no way out to save their children from the clutches of death. While refuting the criticism, the treasury members referred to relief measures taken by the government including distribution of 500,000 wheat bags free of cost, posting of medical staff including doctors and lady gynaecologists in hospitals, supply of medicines and drinking water besides vaccinating livestock and installing chilling plants to promote milk industry.

Before the resolution was put to vote, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Dr Sikander Mandhro said the government did not refuse that there was extreme poverty in Thar as residents of the district had no other source of income except livestock. In absence of rain, there was no fodder for the livestock, causing hardships for the people to earn a living, he said.

He added that maternal health was as important as children who reportedly died due to malnutrition. He said that the situation could be improved with measures to improve maternal health along with population planning and steps to check malnutrition.

Health Minister Dr Mehtab Dahar said it was not only the government responsible for the situation in Thar but also society in general. The Thar issue could not be resolved solely by the distribution of wheat and setting up of hospitals but paying attention to primary health, he said. He claimed that the government was working on this project for the past six months. A screening programme has been chalked out for children and expectant mothers who were being sent to hospitals for the required treatment, he added.

He said the government was carrying out screening of the children below five years. So far in 13,070 villages, 56,700 children and 26,129 pregnant women have been screened under this programme, according to the minister.

He also defended the role of PPHI for its nutrition programme. He said that most of the complicated cases, which could not be treated even in private hospitals, were handled by untrained midwives. He also refuted the allegations regarding distribution of poor quality wheat and said the conspiracy was checked before hand and those involved were arrested.

Information Minister Sharjeel Inam Memon said that the Thar issue was the outcome of absence of rains for the past three years. No doubt everything was not in order but the infrastructure there was better than other cities, he said. He said the government was prepared to give briefing to the assembly about death of children and impact of the drought. Those critical of the PPP governments performance should also take into account steps taken for the district when the prime minister and the chief minister were from Thar. They should be asked who had stopped them from carrying out development work in Thar, he said.

Mr Memon said had the PML-N government after the removal of the Benazir government had not closed down the coal mining project of Thar and Keti Bander power project, the situation would have been quite different at present.

He said that it was difficult to provide facilities to scattered rural population who lived in small villages far from each other.

He advised the opposition not to ignore the fact that the overall situation across the country was not very different from Thar’s though the government was making every effort to improve the situation in the desert. This could be judged from the fact that the chief minister, who had paid 10 visits to the district, was in Thar with his cabinet members even on Tuesday.

Earlier speaking on the resolution, leader of the opposition said that the drought had been visiting Thar almost every year. The authorities posted there should have made preparations before 50 to 60 precious lives were lost, he said. He said it would have been better if a parliamentary committee had been formed to investigate the ground realities instead of indulging in refuting the media reports.

Nusrat Sahar Abbasi asked about the fate of Justice Alvi’s report on the subject and said the government should not avoid the process of accountability.

Mehatb Akbar Rashdi quoting from the book of Fatimah Zohra Gandhi said the situation which she had faced in the early 1990s was no different from the present situation in Thar where health and nutrition facilities were still not available.

MQM’s Mohammad Hussain said the government should face the facts instead of refuting the media reports and take measures to resolve the Thar issue. He said it was the MQM that had been sending relief goods to Thar for the past four years.

Faisal Sabzwari said that even if they agreed that during the previous government he’d done nothing, what change the PPP government had brought during the past seven years.

Before the house, which was called to order at 11.10am, was adjourned at 4.35pm to reassemble on Friday at 10am, newly elected PPP-MPA Syed Murad Ali Shah was administered oath by Deputy Speaker Syed Shehla Raza. Mr Shah, who was welcomed by the house, expressed his gratitude to the PPP leadership and all well-wishers for the honour. He said he would discharge his responsibility to serve the people of Sindh and the province with his best capabilities.

Published in Dawn, November 12th, 2014

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