DERA ISMAIL KHAN: Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman on Saturday said the agreements made by the last PTI-led federal government with the International Monetary Fund were leading Pakistan to debt default.

“Hadn’t we [the then opposition] ousted the Imran government, the country would have defaulted on loans,” the JUI-F chief told reporters here.

Mr Fazl said the biggest challenge for the Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif-led administration was the revival of national economy.He said the flash floods had caused large-scale damage to public life and property and crops, so the government was carrying out massive relief and rehabilitation activities.

“Our [federal government’s] focus is on the rehabilitation of flood victims,” he said.

Without naming names, the JUI-F chief said some politicians were playing negative politics on the monsoon disaster but their designs won’t succeed.

JUI-F chief says govt working for economic revival

He said he appreciated his party’s workers and supporters for working for the relief and rehabilitation of flood-hit people.

Federal communications minister Asad Mahmood, JUI-F parliamentary leader in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly Maulana Lutfur Rehman and other party leaders were also present on the occasion.

PROTEST: Scores of flood-affected villagers on Saturday blocked the Indus Highway at Chodhwan Morr to protest the district administration’s ‘failure’ to provide them with with relief goods, especially food, and reconstruction of the Prova-Chodhwan Sikandar South Road.

The protesters, who belonged to Bharki, Jhok Maachhi, Jhok Tareuli and Jhok Jhanddir villages, said the downpour-induced flash floods destroyed the road connecting flood-hit areas to other areas but the administration had yet to begin work for its reconstruction.

They also complained about a delay in relief and rehabilitation activities in the area.

The protesters said they got nothing from government officials and politicians except for false relief and rehab promises.

They said the flash floods had disconnected dozens of villages from other parts of the tehsil leaving the residents without food and other essential goods.

The protesters said the government was indifferent to their misery.

They demanded the immediate provision of relief goods, compensation for damage to their property, early rehabilitation, and reconstruction of the road.

Published in Dawn, September 4th, 2022