ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani is clearly worried. Not just because of the floods, which have displaced hundreds of thousands of people, but also because the federal government’s efforts for providing relief to the affected people are not registering with the populace because of the habit on the part of the political leadership of Punjab of point scoring.

He expressed these fears on Tuesday as his efforts to reach out to the affected people ended even before they began.

Tuesday morning began badly when the prime minister had to cancel a visit to Swat and Malakand because of poor weather conditions.

Undeterred, later in the afternoon he took off from Islamabad for Mianwali but had to return midway because of approaching thick clouds and gusty winds.

However, during the short and unsuccessful round trip, he told a couple of accompanying media persons that the various arms of the federal government, including the army, navy, air force, National Disaster Management Authority and the ministries concerned were making an all-out effort to provide relief to the flood-hit people but the media had given the credit to the individual organisations instead of the government as a whole. “What is the federal government? They are all part of it,” he pointed out.

So worried was the prime minister it seems that he seized on the proposal of some media persons and directed the information ministry, then and there, to arrange a marathon telecast on Pakistan Television to highlight the efforts of the federal government in the affected areas and hold daily media briefings. But the prime minister also found time to discuss other issues of national concern.

The Airblue crash on the Margallas and his interior minister, Rehman Malik, came in for discussion.

Criticising Mr Malik, the prime minister informed his fellow passengers that ‘Rehman Baba’ had said six injured people had been removed from the site of the air crash.

According to Mr Gilani, when the interior minister was asked if the injured were conscious, he said “they spoke a little bit”.

Even an aerial view made it evident that none of the passengers could have survived, added the prime minister. Such anecdotes apart, the flood situation was discussed in great detail.

National Disaster Management Authority chairman Lt-Gen (retd) Nadeem Ahmed informed the prime minister that Gilgit-Baltistan would prove the real challenge for the government because four major bridges on the Karakoram Highway were completely washed away and the authorities would have no choice but to airdrop food supplies there.

He said the British government had agreed to provide folding bridges to restore the communication network in different parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, GB, AJK and Punjab.

He said the AJK would also need the federal government’s special attention.

Mr Nadeem told the prime minister that 35 helicopters in KP, 10 in AJK and GB and 15 in Punjab were constantly in the air to rescue stranded people and provide ready-to-eat food and medicines while 150 boats had been flown in from Karachi and UAE for the relief operation. He said the entire helicopter fleet of the Navy was on standby, in case of need in Sindh.

The NDMA chief said the damage assessment reports coming from different agencies and ministries were being put together and would be handed over to the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank for proper and professional need assessment so that their calls were acceptable to the international community. He said about 777 deaths had been confirmed because of the floods.

Relief measures

As the logistics and the federal government’s efforts were discussed the Punjab government was not far away.

The prime minister said the federal government was providing support to the provincial governments through coordination, helicopters and boats and supply of goods.

He said the Punjab government wanted all relief measures in the province to be routed through it so that Lahore could take credit for all the good work and criticise the federal government.

His words were echoed by his principal secretary Nargis Sethi who pointed out that a number of responsibilities had been transferred to the provinces under the 18th Amendment while financial resources had been transferred under the new national finance commission award.

She explained that the provincial governments had already received additional resources on July 1 after the federal budget.

The prime minister said that he was told by an aide that Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif had demanded Rs7-10 billion from Islamabad on the first day of heavy downpour even though only areas in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa were threatened by floods.

In a bid to ensure that his fellow politicians did not miss the opportunity to serve the flood victims in the affected areas, the prime minister agreed to call off a session of the National Assembly scheduled on August 9.

He did this on the request of Deputy Speaker Faisal Karim Kundi.

Mr Gilani said he had convened a special meeting of the federal cabinet on Wednesday to review the relief efforts and added that he had invited the provincial chief ministers to attend it. However, he agreed that it might not be possible for the provincial leadership to travel out of their provinces in this difficult situation.

Zardari visit

When President Asif Ali Zardari and his trip to Europe came up for discussion, the prime minister acted most prime ministerial.

Dismissing criticism of the visit’s timing, Mr Gilani said “the chief executive of the country” was at home looking after relief efforts, all the provincial chief executives were present in their provinces and the relevant agencies were coordinating with foreign ambassadors and UN agencies.

“What does he (the president) have to do with all these things,” he said.

“The president’s is a state visit linked to United Kingdom’s Queen,” he added, ignoring the president’s scheduled meeting with the country’s prime minister.

It is noteworthy that so far, no one has mentioned that the president will be meeting the monarch.

However, when he was reminded of the British prime minister’s controversial remarks against Pakistan, the prime minister felt that he had given a befitting response to those remarks in the National Assembly. And if that was not enough, he added, “let us decide that nobody will ever visit UK instead of indulging in point scoring”.

Courtesy by dawn.com