KARACHI: Sindh Information Minister Sharjeel Inam Memon on Wednesday said the provincial government was currently focusing on draining stagnant water out of the flood-hit areas besides providing adequate medical facilities to the flood victims to help them overcome waterborne and infectious diseases.

He was addressing a press conference flanked by special assistant to chief minister on investment Qasim Naveed Qamar.

Answering a question, he said that most of the relief camps for flood-hit people had been established in the schools where educational activities were not being carried out. “The provincial education minister has been tasked in the previous cabinet meeting to devise a comprehensive policy so as to ensure that there wouldn’t be any injustice meted out to the students of those closed schools in the annual board examination,” he said.

In answer to another question, he said Sindh and Balochistan were not included in the map of Pakistan perceived by Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chairman Imran Khan. “Imran Khan thinks that the provinces in which there is no PTI government are not part of Pakistan,” he retorted.

He said ‘fake telethons’ and ‘fake fund-raising campaigns’ were organised in the name of helping flood victims in order to mislead the innocent people.

Sharjeel Memon said Imran Khan had always followed anti-Sindh politics and added that when Imran Khan was in power, he never included even a single road scheme for the province in the federal development programme. “Imran Khan never spent a night in Sindh during his four-year rule,” he added.

“This person has become a security risk for the institutions and the country,” he said, appealing to the chief justice of Pakistan and other state institutions to take serious notice of Imran Khan’s actions.

Answering a question, he said the government only held 25 per cent stock of the wheat supply while the rest was procured by the private sector (mill owners). “The Sindh government is working to evolve a mechanism to transfer the benefits of the subsidy on wheat to the poor people,” he said, adding that it would be a targeted subsidy and given in the targeted areas so that poor and deserving segment of society could buy flour on subsidised rates.

Published in Dawn, September 22nd, 2022