ISLAMABAD: Senators were astounded to know on Wednesday that the Sindh government had spent over Rs10.3 billion in food, health and relief support in drought-hit Thar in less than three years, yet people were dying of hunger and disease there.

Officials concerned told the Senate Committee on Human Rights, which met to discuss the Thar situation, that wheat worth more than Rs4.2bn had been distributed free of cost in Thar over the past three years.

“This is besides Rs300 million spent on distribution of wheat bags,” said an official of the Sindh finance department.

For months the Thar desert in Sindh has been hitting the headlines. From severe water shortage to inaccessible medical facilities, which have caused death of some 250 children from malnutrition and disease, Thar has seen much devastation.

The committee members were surprised to know that the Sindh government had spent an ‘incredible’ amount of money on relief activities but there were no records to confirm that relief had actually reached affected people.

“If we go by the figures submitted by the Sindh government officials, everyone out of the 1.3 million residents of Thar...would have enough wheat to last for six months,” said independent Senator Mohsin Leghari.

Over Rs10bn spent on relief work in less than three years, yet death haunts drought-hit people, observe panel members

An official further surprised the members when he elaborated how Rs1.8bn had been spent on relief and rehabilitation of sufferers in Thar, another Rs2bn in health and hygiene in the area and yet another Rs2bn in Umerkot for similar purposes, from 2013-14 to 2015-16.

The official was unable to provide details how the money and relief goods were utilised.

“Given that there is no end to suffering of Thari people, it is obvious that food and health support is not reaching them,” Mr Leghari said.

Senator Sitara Ayaz of the Awami National Party insisted that members of the committee should visit Thar and Umerkot to get firsthand knowledge of ground realities.

Fazila Aliani, a member of the National Commission on Human Rights, said corruption compounded miseries of Thar people.

She shared findings of a report which revealed how the Sindh government had failed to deliver a project to install water filtration plants in response to the drought and health emergency in the region.

“The reverse osmosis (RO) project was launched in 2014. Of the 700 water filtration plants (allocated for the region), 432 have been installed. But more than 70 of them are not functioning mostly because of poor maintenance. Others are inaccessible by local communities.

“Worse, people find the taste of water unpleasant,” she said.

PML-N Senator Nisar Mohamamd described the performance of the Sindh government as ‘shameful’.

Senator Leghari, who was presiding over the meeting due to the absence of the committee’s convener Nasreen Jalil, said he would consider the request made by members to visit the area to obtain firsthand knowledge of the crisis.

Attackers still at large

To the dismay of the committee members, DIG of Sindh Sarwar Jamali told them that the gunmen who had attacked Muttahida Qaumi Movement Senator Nasreen Jalil’s security escort were still at large.

“There are no leads so far as to who the gunmen were. The Senator has two policemen for security and police patrolling in her neighbourhood has been increased,” he said.

While investigating the attack, the DIG said, police were looking at different angles such as intra-party politics, gang wars and targeted killing.

On April 4, a guard of Ms Jalil’s was killed with another person in an attack on her security escort.

The meeting was told that unidentified assailants on a motorcycle shot five to six rounds at the vehicle escorting the Senator’s car. But no empties were found at the place of the incident. Of the two closed-circuit TV (CCTV) cameras, which could have helped police identify the gunmen, one was out of order and the other out of range.

The meeting also learnt that the two armed policemen deployed for Ms Jalil’s security were not escorting her when the attack took place.

This earned the ire of the committee members who were curious to know why the two policemen meant to protect the Senator were absent.

DIG Jamali said shortage of security cameras made investigations harder. As many as 2,200 CCTV cameras of two mega pixel have been installed in Karachi but 50 per cent of them were non-functional, he said.

“The operational cameras are of such poor quality that number plates of a vehicle cannot be read on their footage,” he said. “We need more than 10,000 cameras of eight mega pixel to fight crime.”

Published in Dawn, May 5th, 2016