On one hand the Sindh government claims to be short on cash for undertaking rehabilitation work the floods-hit areas, and on the other is found acquiring new luxury vehicles for its lawmakers, elected by the poverty-stricken masses.
“The Sindh government has finalised negotiations with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) for US$405 million loan… for rehabilitation of flood-damaged irrigation and roads network,” said Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah, on Thursday while presenting the three-year performance report in the Sindh Assembly (SA). However, sources told Pakistan Today that last Wednesday an ‘important’ meeting took place in the SA speaker’s office.
The meeting, presided over by Finance Minister Murad Ali Shah, was held to finalise the purchase of new vehicles for the chairmen of assembly’s standing committees. The sources claimed that the meeting, attended by SA Speaker Nisar Khuhro, Secretary Hadi Bux Buriro among a host of MPAs – probably standing committees’ chairmen – discussed the matters pertaining procurement of at least 22 new official vehicles.
“At least 2 to 3 VIP vehicles were bought for the SA Secretariat not more than a month ago,” the sources confided with Pakistan Today. The Sindh government had estimated its post-floods economic losses at Rs 464 billion and claims to have finalised a deal with the ADB for rehabilitating damaged irrigation and road networks in the flood-affected areas during the next two years.
And the chief minister was happy to tell the assembly members that his resource-constrained government would be paying a nominal interest of only half percent to the ADB at payback time. Moreover, Shah said, Iran had committed providing $100 million for house building in the Thatta district and Turkey had pledged to construct 2,000 houses in the Shikarpur district.
More deals have been clinched with international donors and non-governmental organisations (NGOs), like USAID and UN-HABITAT, for rehabilitation of water supply and drainage systems in various flood-hit towns. “UN-HABITAT is building 10,600 houses… other national NGOs are also complementing our efforts,” the chief minister told the lawmakers, amid their desk-thumping.
Last year, unprecedented floods across the country washed away a million houses in over 20 towns and 11,000 villages, breached canals from 2,856 places, damaged 2,300 kilometres of roads, and resulted in the death of over 300 people only in Sindh province. The World Bank and ADB estimated losses of at least $10 billion throughout the country.
The chief minister on Thursday stated: “Sindh suffered the most damage from floods, as the province’s losses accounted for 45 percent of the total losses in the country.” However, heavy foreign borrowings amid purchase of luxurious vehicles, suggest that persistent calls from economic experts for curbing borrowing and embarking on an austerity plan to achieve macroeconomic stability in the country, have fallen on deaf ears.
