PESHAWAR: A former lawmaker of Jamaat-i-Islami, a coalition partner in the provincial government, has criticised Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government for ignoring the people affected by flood in Chitral.

Addressing a press conference here on Thursday, former MNA Maulana Abdul Akbar Chitrali criticised the statement of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chairman Imran Khan about convening donors’ conference for support of flood-affected people in Chitral district.

He said that thousands of people suffered due to natural disasters in 2015 but provincial government failed to reconstruct the infrastructure in Chitral. He said that Chitralis would teach a lesson to PTI in the next general elections for its failure to mitigate the suffering of the flood victims.

The former MNA said that Imran hurt the feelings of the people of Chitral by saying that donors’ conference would be convened to help the affected families. He said that people of Chitral were not beggars to seek alms rather it was duty of the government to provide required funds for reconstruction of the infrastructure and rehabilitation of the displaced families.

The JI leader said that massive destruction taken place during flash floods last year that had affected most of upper parts of Chitral including Bamburait, Baroz, Garam Chashma, Tor Kahoo and Sheshi Koh. However, he said, the provincial government failed to rehabilitate the flood-hit areas despite the lapse of one year.

Mr Chitrali said that Imran Khan and the provincial government, led by his party, had promised to allocate sufficient funds for reconstruction and rehabilitation of floods affected areas of Chitral but did nothing so far.

He said that huge funds were allocated for Nowshera and Swabi, the home districts of chief minister and provincial assembly speaker, respectively.

The former MNA said that it was failure of the lawmakers from Chitral that the district was ignored in the current fiscal year. He said that Chitralis would take revenge from PTI in the next general elects.

Published in Dawn, July 1st, 2016