Government's negligence adds miseries of flood victims: HRCP

The negligence on the part of government has added to the miseries of flood affected people as most of them are dying due to scarcity of food, Iqbal Haider, Secretary General of Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), said while addressing a press conference here on Thursday.
He said that the government was unable to take care of the poor masses during the recent flood in Balochistan and Sindh. "The government claims to have evacuated almost 40,000 people through 20 helicopters but in fact first of all so many helicopters were not deployed and secondly, it was impossible to shift so many people", he maintained.
According to Iqbal Haider, Natural Disaster Management Authority responded late when all means of communications were destroyed. He said that the international community offered aid for the flood affected areas but the President rejected it. He told the panel of journalists that Abdul Sattar Edhi has to face a lot of problems in carrying out flood relief activities especially in Karachi. "Edhi was harassed and victimised for disclosing the actual number of deaths ie, more than 250 in Karachi alone", he added.
He said on to say, "besides the rural areas even Quetta remained without the supply of gas for several days. "The first rescue flight landed in flood affected Gwadar late at night on Saturday after five days. The people there had no burner to cook anything but the government sent them uncooked food like pulses, flour etc." He continued, "Some far off areas of Sindh and Balochistan are still without assistance". He said that the issue of Lal Masjid is the hot topic of today but the government should pay heed towards the other Madrassas in every sector of Islamabad notably in E-7 and G-8 Markaz.
He said that the cancer of religious extremism is spreading in the country and it seems as if this is an open plan to Talbanise Pakistan. "The boys and girls from the impoverished families are being used by the fundamentalists as cannon fodder to serve the political as well as financial objectives", he highlighted.
He said that the government must ensure the registration of the Madrassas as well as an independent judicial commission should be constituted in each province and the capital to investigate into functioning of Madrassas all over the country.