Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) Acting President Shaukat Ahmed on Tuesday urged the government to announce immediately the necessary directives for Thar and other affected districts of Sindh facing severe drought and famine.
“The drought and famine have created the problem of food insecurity and water crisis. Global warming and manifestations of climate changes is the main reason that has reduced frequency and intensity of rainfall which is eroding the socio-economic system of Thar region and this is happening for two to three years in every 10 year cycle,” he said in a statement.
He said that due to negligence, the problem of Thar had severely increased with the passage of time. Thar district has a lot of natural resources and has the capacity to feed its people but due to non-sustainable and short-sighted policies, the people are deprived of their agriculture, livestock, crops and other sources of livelihood and sustainability, he said.
Ahmed further added that all leading officials of the government should visit immediately Thar for resolving the problems of malnutrition, poverty and diseases.
FPCCI’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) department is working in Thar for providing necessities to the affected people, he said, adding that the government can also collaborate with FPCCI for resolving the problems of people of Thar.
Ahmed further stated that apart from human beings, Thar also needs attention for the safety of livestock. Through a good and right policies and measures, a natural calamity of Sindh region can be minimised from turning into a further human disaster, he added.
He said that the media was doing good job to highlight the suffering people of Thar, but said that this created a wrong image of Pakistan internationally regarding human resource development.
“Pakistan is already at very low rank (147th out of 187th) in the human development index. Poverty, malnutrition, infant mortality and lack of ease of clean water can deteriorate our ranking.”
