MITHI/UMERKOT: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) leader Hal­eem Adil Sheikh has regretted that the Sindh government is still unmoved by the deaths of malnourished children in the drought-stricken Thar.

He was speaking to people and local reporters on Tuesday during his visit to the Thar region at the head of a four-member team of PTI lawmakers to assess the drought situation and required relief assistance.

The other members of his team are MPAs Dr Imran Ali Shah, Dr Sanjey Gangwani and Dua Bhutto.

During their visit to hospitals of Umerkot, Chhachhro and Mithi, the delegation inquired about the health of the admitted children and distributed relief goods among them.

Mr Sheikh said: “This is the 11th year of the present government in Sindh but still children of the poor are dying in Thar and rest of the province”. Not a single step had been taken to benefit the people of Tharparkar on a permanent basis, he said. He said government hospitals faced a shortage of doctors and medicines but the provincial government felt no sympathy for the children of the poor.

The PTI lawmakers said that had some concrete measures been taken, the situation in Thar would have been much better.

Mr Shaikh said that there was a terrible shortage of life-saving drugs in Mithi and other hospitals of the district. He said 750 reverse osmosis (RO) plants had been obtained through favourite suppliers and of them 350 were installed but soon they developed faults and became dysfunctional.

He noted that the largest RO plant of Asia was also lying dysfunctional which showed the extent of corruption in these projects.

He claimed that four mobile medical units were approved for the district but two of them went to the hometown of the Sindh chief minister while the remaining two were only confined to Mithi. He said the condition of government dispensaries in the far-flung areas was pathetic.

Mr Sheikh accused the PPP government of swallowing Rs900 billion, meant for providing health­care facilities to people, during their 10-years rule over the province.

Sanjay Gangwani complained that PTI voters had been politically victimised during the period.

MPA Dua Bhutto said 25 dehs of Umerkot district had been declared calamity-hit but no relief work was started there. He called for long-term strategy to cope with the situation.

Meanwhile, activists of various nationalist parties staged a protest in Umerkot against inflation and moves for the construction of controversial Kalabagh dam on Tuesday.

They criticised the PTI government for imposing various taxes and increasing the prices of essential commodities and agriculture inputs.

Published in Dawn, September 19th, 2018