ISLAMABAD: The military stepped up efforts on Monday to rescue hundreds of thousands of people marooned by floods and facing severe shortages of food in the southern and northwestern parts of the country.
An estimated one million have been affected by heavy rainfall, flash floods and landslides since July as Pakistan endured more than 60 percent of its normal total monsoon rainfall in three weeks.
With little aid from a weak civilian government, many flood victims are pinning hopes on the military as the only institution capable of helping them rebuild their lives.
Survivors of the nation’s worst rains and flash floods in history are increasingly impatient over a lack of food and relief goods, and are criticising the government of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif for mismanagement.
Some villagers have been living on rooftops for days, while others are eating plants and leaves after exhausting food stocks.
An Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) statement said the Pakistan Army on Monday continued relief and rescue operation in flood-hit towns of Sindh, Punjab and Balochistan.
Its troops were engaged with the civil administration in assisting relief and rescue operations in the provinces hit by record rains and flash floods.
The chief military spokesperson said the troops were engaged in shifting affectees to safe areas besides also distributing rations among them.
In Sindh, it said soldiers reached the flood-hit town of Saim Nullah in district Khairpur to safeguard the victims after flooding damaged more than 200 houses.
Troops from the garrison city of Pano Aqil who took part in the efforts shifted the victims to safe locations and a group of military doctors provided immediate medical aid.
Whereas in Balochistan, soldiers from Pakistan Army and Frontier Corps continue to provide assistance to civil administration in their relief efforts in the cities of Quetta, Pishin, Qila Saif Ullah, Ziarat, Zhob, Loralai and Noshki.
“Teams of Pakistan Army, FC, PDMA [Provincial Disaster Management Authority] and civil administration are shifting people to safer places where they are being served with cooked food and other amenities.
Relief camps have been established in Naseerabad, Duki and Lasbela areas,” the ISPR said.
It further shared that free medical camps were also established in flood-affected areas while all-out efforts are being made to restore communication infrastructure at the earliest.
In Punjab, Pakistan Army is carrying out relief activities and providing medical care to the affected people in the cities of Vehari, Rajanpur and Dera Ghazi Khan.
