Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) Punjab, in cooperation with the Al-Khidmat Foundation, has strived to rehabilitate locals in the Khairpur, Matyari, Nawabshah and Sanghar districts, Dr Waseem Akhtar said in a press conference at Lahore Press Club on Monday after returing from a tour of the flood-stricken areas of Sindh. Punjab Information Secretary Farooq Chohan Maliks Ilyas, Ikramul Haq Subhani, Syed Burhan and Information Deputy Secretary Imran ul Haq were also present on the occasion.
Waseem said the federal government, including the Sindh government, had failed miserably in this regard. JI and the Al-Khidmat Foundation had the complete trust of the local and foreign populace, which was why some countries had been cooperating directly with the foundation, adding that the workers of the Al-Khidmat Foundation had played a unique role in the 2010 floods, as well as in the 2005 earthquake. Punjabis were helping their Sindhi brothers openheartedly, he said.
Punjab JI workers, with 18 ambulances, two veterinary mobile health units and a large number of medicines had set up 12 medical camps to serve the populace of the afflicted districts. About 15 tent villages, home to about 3,200 individuals, were being provided meals twice a day. Waseem added that the JI, with Al-Khidmat foundation, had distributed more than 1,000 tonnes of food to 50,000 people, while a further 1,500 tonnes of dry food would be sent to the afflicted districts. He criticised the apathy of the Sindh government, which had failed to play its due role in the catastrophe, adding that while floodwater inundated the landscape, people could not rebuild their houses or cultivate future crops. He demanded the government make arrangements to drain water from they area immediately, so that people could start rebuilding their lives.
