Pakistan People’s Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has castigated the federal government for sitting cross-legged while the unseasoned rains, hailstorm joined by land-slides and avalanches inflict heavy losses in terms of precious human lives, livestock and crops and other agriculture produces in several parts of the country.
Last week, Bilawal had alerted the federal government and other provincial governments about the predicted imminent heavy downpours and hailstorms and their negative effects on the farmers and areas prone to landsliding and avalanches and asked for preparedness in advance to face the situation and mitigate sufferings of the people.
“It seems the government slept and ignored my calls for pre-emptive humanly possible measures to save human lives and standing crops,” Bilawal said in a statement released on Monday.
The PPP chief lamented that slumber of the rulers in Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa continued while torrential rains ravaged vast areas. The federal government extended no support to Azad Jammu and Kashmir where heavy rains caused landslides and destructed dozens of houses, he said.
Bilawal pointed out that official reports put the number of those perished around 79 and wounded around a hundred, but the actual losses could not be estimated accurately as many affected areas were still inaccessible for rescuers following the mud-sliding and avalanches.
He said parts of Punjab, FATA, Malakand, Hazara, Azad Kashmir, Gilgit-Baltistan had been battered by the heavy rainfall and hailstorm that flattened the standing crops, but the government seemed callous and unmoved.
The PPP chairman expressed deep concern over the loss of human lives, property and damage caused to the standing crops and demanded the federal government to immediately provide compensation and relief to all the affected areas without any discrimination.