ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Thursday criticised the economic policies of the previous Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government and said Imran Khan is out to “undermine Pakistan”.
Referring to two news stories published in the British weekly The Economist, the premier said the international publication had “validated” what the government had been saying regarding PTI’s handling of the economy.
The prime minister said the magazine had stated that the former premier “blew up” the IMF deal and Imran was “exploiting the disaster to score political points”.
Senior leaders of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) have also criticized Imran, accusing him of doing divisive politics amid devastating floods in self-serving interest.
Later in the day, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said that with the country facing severe challenges including the worst flooding in history, there was a need for all to join hands to pay heed to the miseries of flood-hit masses by leaving political differences aside.
“Millions of people are sitting under the open sky and waiting for some Masiha to come to their help. If we have to save the people of Pakistan and its future, we have to work together with courage, brotherhood and harmony. Let’s resolve to be together in this hour of need,” the Prime Minister told media-persons from the print and electronic mediums.
Prime Minister Sharif, who informed the newsmen about the huge human and material losses caused by the floods, observed that at a time when the nation was facing the severe floods’ situation, those who talk about Riasat-e-Madina were busy in the activities, contrary to their claims.
“Is it the politics,” he remarked without naming any party. The Prime Minister also urged media to play their role in uniting the nation to face the challenges.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said that with the province of Sindh hit most by the current floods, which were worst in the country’s history, were much bigger than the 2010 floods in terms of its spread and devastation.
“Over 1300 deaths and many more injured due to floods, thousands of villages in Sindh were inundated; rice, cotton and date-palm crops on millions of acres were destroyed and the human life had come to a standstill,” he added.
The Prime Minister said that with poor people’s houses destroyed and around 700,000 cattle and livestock lost in the floods, over 33 million people have been affected due to floods.
After Sindh, Balochistan was the most affected province followed by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Southern Punjab and some parts of Gilgit Baltistan, he added.
The Prime Minister said that as rescue and relief efforts were continuing in the flood affected areas through effective coordination among the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), the Provincial Disaster Management Authorities (PDMAs) and the National Flood Response and Coordination Center (NFRCC), the federal and provincial government were doing their best to help the flood-hit people.
Besides, he said, the country’s armed forces personnel from Army, Navy and Air Force were also working day and night in the flood affected areas in the rescue and relief efforts by using their resources including boats and helicopters.
The Prime Minister said that the federal government, which had earlier allocated Rs. 28 billion for the flood affected area across the country as per initial assessment of damages, has now enhanced that amount to Rs. 70 billion after the latest assessment of losses.
He said that as the federal government had announced the financial assistance of Rs. 25,000 per affected family in the flood-hit areas, an amount of Rs. 20 billion has already been distributed among the affected families through a transparent process under the Benazir Income Support Program (BISP).
The Prime Minister further said that Rs. one million each was also being paid to the heirs of those over 1300 people who lost their lives in the floods, adding, Rs. 70 billion allocated by the federal government did not include any foreign funding.
He also mentioned with praise the generous relief goods being dispatched through an air-bridge created by the friendly countries including the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Qatar, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Australia and others.
