HYDERABAD: Leaders of the Jamaat-i-Islami (JI), the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl and Pakistan Muslim League-Functional have held Sindh government responsible for the famine-like conditions in Thar and asked why it took a number of disturbing reports in media to stir the slumbering government into action.

JI Sindh emir Dr Merajul Huda Siddiqui lashed out at the Sindh government at a press conference at the press club on Saturday and said the government should have taken serious action against the officials responsible for this situation.

“Why did PPP’s elected representatives of Tharparkar not rise to the occasion? Why have they remained unaware so far of the disturbing situation? Why did the government fail to provide medical aid and milk to dying children,” he asked.

The government had not taken a serious action to cope with the situation despite media’s pressure and the Sindh chief minister had suspended a couple of officials only in Mithi, which was not enough, he said.

He suggested the government run mobile units to provide medical aid and wheat to Tharis on a war footing and different teams should work on supply of fodder and vaccination of livestock.

He said that the Thar situation was a direct result of poor governance in which both government officials and elected representatives remained in prolonged hibernation till a media report jolted them to act.

“It’s painful that successive governments including those of PML-N’s and the PPP’s have done nothing to provide basic facilities to Tharis and left them at the mercy of elements,” he regretted.

Badin

JUI-F general secretary and minister of state Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Hyderi has held Sindh government responsible for the famine-like conditions in Thar.

The Maulana said while addressing party workers in Tando Bago town late on Friday night that Sindh government had failed to respond in time to the tribulations of Tharis.

He said that Thari children were dying of hunger but their representatives in the parliament were doing nothing to mitigate their sufferings.

He demanded food for the starving populace and fodder for the animals on a war footing and observed that one of the major reasons behind prevailing poverty in Sindh and Balochistan was that the provinces did not get royalty of gas, oil and other minerals.

Shikarpur

PML-F’s MPA and special assistant to prime minister, Imtiaz Ahmed Shaikh, has urged the chief justice of Sindh High Court to form an inquiry commission of judges to conduct probe against the government officials involved in creating a humanitarian crisis in Thar.

He said at a press conference here on Saturday that Sindh government had been grossly indifferent towards the problems of Thari people and accused the government of failing to supply required medicines to hospitals in Thar, which eventually led to the death of 122 children over the past three months.

He urged the government to supply food items, medicines and other relief goods to the famished Thari people and allocate special grant of Rs1000 million to overcome the situation. The Rs100 million announced by the chief minister for relief work was not sufficient, he said.He appealed to the prime minister and national disaster management bodies to release funds and relief items for the victims of Thar on humanitarian grounds.