KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah brushed aside on Tuesday the allegations of slackness, negligence and incompetence of his government in meeting the challenge of the Tharparkar drought and said it had realised the situation in November and started taking measures to meet the situation.

The chief minister, who was winding up the discussion on a motion regarding the situation in Thar, said there was little substance in reports of deaths of children in the district due to drought. He asked if the deaths were caused by the famine, why only infants and not a single child of 10 years or above had died from hunger. “There is no proof of a single death from hunger,” he said.

In the discussion, which ran for about three hours, 18 lawmakers across the house spoke. They stressed the need for long-term planning to prevent death and misery caused by droughts every two to three years.

Leader of the opposition the Sindh Assembly Syed Faisal Sabzwari, Syed Sardar Ahmad, Khawja Izhar-ul-Hasan, Heer Ismail Soho, Ashfaq Mangi, Poonjo Mal and Waqar Hussain from the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, Nand Kumar and Jam Madad Ali from the Pakistan Muslim League-Functional, Irfanullah Khan Marwat and Ejaz Ali Shah Shirazi from the PML-N, Hafeezuddin and Sherzaman from the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf in their speeches said if the situation was normal why the chief minister admitted his government’s mistakes and visited the area six times during a short period.

They highlighted the need for long- and short-term planning so that in future such casualties and suffering of the people from drought and famine could be avoided.

They also suggested the need to set up a monitoring committee comprising members from both the treasury and opposition benches and technocrats to oversee relief efforts and ensure that every victim family got due compensation without any discrimination.

The opposition also assured the chief minister of cooperation in executing government projects to improve the situation in Thar.

From the treasury benches, besides the chief minister, information minister Sharjeel Inam Memon, Khatoomal Jeevan, Dost Ali Rahimoo, Ali Mardan Shah and Dr Mahesh Kumar asserted that no deaths had occurred from famine or drought in Thar.

They said 600 reverse osmosis plants were being installed to supply drinking water and on other development projects Rs11 billion was being spent. He said all the deaths of children were caused by malnutrition, premature births, pneumonia, fever, cold wave and getting treatment from fake doctors.

Responding to the opposition members’ speeches, the chief minister said his government had never ignored Tharparkar and it was aware of the drought situation as there had been no rains, but wheat could not be made available in Mithi from Mirpurkhas as the transporters were on strike.

He said the government had distributed wheat free contrary to the past practice of charging 50 per cent of the price. He said the government had announced payment of Rs200,000 compensation to the family for every dead.

He said officials found negligent, including the deputy commissioner and the superintendent of police, had been suspended and Sanaullah Abbasi, an officer of good reputation, and the Sindh chief secretary were entrusted to investigate and fix the responsibility.

Earlier, he pointed out the importance of Tharparkar for the PPP. He said PPP chief Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, while going to meet then Indian prime minister Indira Gandhi to hold negotiations, had stated that every inch of the area was important, and got Thar back besides having secured the release of 95,000 soldiers taken into custody by India during the 1970 war.

The chief minister said the PPP had been serving the people everywhere in the province, including Tharparkar, which was ignored by the previous governments.

He said the government was constructing 1,100-kilometre-long road in Thar, which could be compared in quality with the Lahore-Islamabad Motorway. He said that during the tenure of his government Thar would be made the most attractive area of Pakistan, where in the next two years a 1,000kW power generation unit would start producing electricity.

Referring to “the Thar issue’s overplay by the media”, the chief minister said his party government had been serving the people for the last six years, and during that period it had faced three droughts in Thar from 2008 to 2013. In the 2011 drought 140 people died; in the 2012 drought, 139, and in the 2013 drought 196 deaths were reported, but the media did not highlight the issue, nor anyone criticised the caretaker government in 2013.

Faisal Sabzwari said the people had serious concerns over the situation in Tharparkar and no one would like to exploit the deaths. “We wanted to raise the issue in the house through an adjournment motion so that the chief minister could explain what measures were taken to improve the situation, ensuring doctors and medicines availability in the hospitals. He said there was a serious situation that was why the chief minister had paid six visits to the area and the prime minister had to come to Tharparkar.

Sharjeel Memon said the federal government had released not even a single penny for the drought-affected people. However, after the situation was made public, a statement was issued that Rs50 million had been released to the director general of the Benazir Income Support Programme for distribution among the drought-affected people within two days.

He said the Sindh government was taking all due care of the people of Tharparkar and would not leave them at the mercy of nature.The minister agreed that the problems in Tharparkar should find a permanent solution and the slain chairperson of the Pakistan Peoples Party Benazir Bhutto had worked on those lines and launched a programme for developing the coal reserves of Tharparkar but after her government was toppled, the following governments had wrapped up those Thar Coal projects. The Sindh government had once again revived work on developing the Thar Coal projects, which would open tremendous opportunities for jobs, self-reliance and prosperity of the people of Tharparkar, Sindh and the country.

Tuesday being a private members day, no business was taken up from the order of the day because of the discussion on the motion on Tharparkar.

After the speech by the chief minister, Speaker Agha Siraj Durrani adjourned the session at 3.30pm to reassemble on Friday at 10am.