KARACHI: Over 470 people, 300 children among them, have died and about 10,000 animals perished because of recent drought in Tharparker district of Pakistan’s southern Sindh province.
This was stated in a report prepared by the provincial Minister for Prisons, Enquiries and Anti-Corruption, Manzoor Hussain Wasan. The assignment was given to him by PPP Co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari. The report held officials of various departments responsible for the tragedy.
Soon after the report was released to the media yesterday, PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari issued show cause notices to PPP’s Sindh President and Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah and Manzoor Wasan, who is also the party’s provincial Deputy General Secretary, over the mishandling of the situation in Thar and asked them to submit their replies.
A spokesman for Bilawal House, Aijaz Durrani, rejected the report, terming it immature and too early to assess the real situation in Thar. He claimed that Bilawal Bhutto was personally monitoring the situation and investigation was also under process.
According to the report, Wasan paid a visit to Thar last month and held meetings with officials and local people before preparing the report. He has recommended action against the district administration, health, livestock and food departments, the provincial Disaster Management Authority, the relief commissioner and the finance department.
According to the report, 380,000 wheat bags were provided for free distribution among the affected people while over Rs50 million was given to the district health officer and Rs200m to former secretary Chaudhry Zafar Iqbal to purchase fodder for animals.
There are 110 dispensaries and one casualty centre, trauma centre and maternity home each in the district, but none of them was found functional. ORS packets found in the dispensaries had expired.
The Mithi Civil Hospital and a children hospital have better facilities, but they are insufficient to meet the large number of patients, especially women and children. Patients are being referred to hospitals in Hyderabad and Karachi because of non-availability of child specialist and gynaecologist.
According to sources, five fully equipped mobile medical dispensaries worth Rs250 million imported from Japan have been handed over to the health department, but these are being misused.
One is under the use of the Tharparker DCO as an air-conditioned car and another is in the farmhouse of Sindh Information Minister Sharjeel Memon. Two dispensaries have been handed over to Chhor Cantonment and one is under the use of Mithi Civil Hospital.
The report said Thar had been facing drought since 2012 and if health units, mobile medical dispensaries and other medical centres had been functional, the casualties could have been contained.
Internews
