‘50,000 displaced persons being housed at relief camps in Karachi’

KARACHI: Around 50,000 people of Sindh who have been displaced due to heavy rains and floods have reached Karachi, and they are being housed at different relief camps in the city, said Labour and Human Resources Minister Saeed Ghani on Monday.

Tens of thousands of more flood victims might reach the provincial capital in the coming days, Ghani told a meeting he chaired in his capacity as the president of the Pakistan Peoples Party’s (PPP) Karachi chapter. The minister said that no exercise has yet been conducted to determine the accurate number of people affected by rains and floods in the province.

He said that the number of the flood victims can be in the millions. He stressed that the people who have left their homes to reach Karachi have done it of their own free will. He lamented that certain unscrupulous elements involved in land grabbing and other crimes have been trying to give a bad name to the displaced people for their nefarious designs.

He pointed out that the provincial government has been helping the flood victims. He said relief camps for the flood victims have been established in Sachal Goth, other parts of District East, and in the West and Keamari districts as well.

He also pointed out during the meeting that the PPP’s Karachi chapter has set up more than 65 relief camps to help the people affected by floods. PPP Sindh General Secretary Waqar Mehdi told the meeting that medical teams will be stationed at every relief camp for treating the ailing or injured victims of floods.

Mehdi said the camps established by the PPP are not accepting cash donations, adding that all monetary contributions by the public are to be deposited in the bank account of the provincial government’s flood relief fund. He said the PPP will ensure strict supervision of the development works to be carried out across the city for repairing the roads damaged during the monsoon rains.

Sindh Women Development Minister Shehla Raza said that special arrangements have to be made for the food and nutritional needs of the displaced children. Shehla said the provincial government has been taking care of the special health needs of the women and children among the affected people. PPP Karachi General Secretary Jawed Nagori said that proper data of the flood victims arriving in different districts of the city needs to be collected. Nagori said the people who have been rendered homeless due to floods and want to reach Karachi for temporary shelter should be given maximum facilitation.

Sindh Social Welfare Minister Sajid Jokhio said that 25,000 flood-affected people have reached District Malir of Karachi, adding that the district has been receiving 3,000 to 4,000 victims on a daily basis. Jokhio suggested establishing a tent city near the Northern Bypass for designating a central location for housing the flood victims instead of housing them at different camps. He said the proposed tent city should have the best medical treatment facilities. The meeting also adopted a resolution to condemn the alleged audio clip of a conversation between Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Senator Shaukat Tareen and the Punjab finance minister, observing that its contents are against the interests of the country.