MITHI: Foreign Minister Mukhdoom Shah Mehmood Qureshi has said that he will soon visit Tharparkar to announce a relief package for the drought-hit region on behalf of the federal government.

“Prime Minister Imran Khan, like me, is fully aware of the traumatic situation Tharis are faced with due to the drought,” he said while speaking to this reporter over phone on Sunday.

He said the Sindh government had already declared Thar ‘drought-hit’ and, therefore, it was under obligation to launch a big relief operation in the desert region to save lives of the badly affected men, women and children.

He recalled that he had recently asked the provincial government to launch the operation without wasting time as the situation was getting worse with every passing day.

Mr Qureshi expressed his serious concern over the unabated deaths of newborns and expecting mothers owing to starvation, malnutrition and a lack of proper healthcare facilities in Thar. “My heart is bleeding over the unabated deaths ...” he said, and called for measures to be taken on an emergency basis to cope with the situation. “The entire world is worried over the infant mortality rate in Thar,” he said.

Published in Dawn, September 17th, 2018