ISLAMABAD: More than three months after unprecedented floods devastated almost one-third of the country, a parliamentary panel on Wednesday bemoaned that the federal and provincial disaster management agencies had operated in a vacuum of data about actual needs of affected people and provision of relief and rehabilitation support.

The committee expressed dissatisfaction over non-availability of accurate data regarding flood survivors, said a terse statement issued by the National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Finance & Revenue.

Presided over by Qaiser Ahmed Shaikh, the PML-N MNA from Chiniot, the committee meeting expressed displeasure over the absence of NDMA Chairman Lt Gen Inam Haider Malik.

The committee, comprising members of all coalition partners in the absence of opposition PTI, criticised the government for its failure in controlling the currency depreciation and other economic challenges.

While discussing the post-flood relief and rehabilitation activities, PPP lawmaker from Sindh Dr Nafisa Shah said a lot of aid material was pouring in from NDMA, PDMAs, charities and armed forces, but it was in a hotchpotch manner and without proper assessment as to who and how many needed shelter, food or medicines and how to provide them with required things and support.

She said there were people who might be getting tents, food and other support multiple times, but at the same time many still awaited supplies. “Now dumping (of material) is going on,” she said, adding that the federal and provincial agencies should coordinate relief and rehabilitation efforts.

PML-N member and former federal minister Birgis Tahir said Dr Nafisa’s constituency should be taken up as a test case to ascertain if government’s relief machinery was able to reach out to the affected people. He said large swathes of land were still under water in Sindh where people were looking for water pumps to flush out standing water while human misery was taking its toll.

Committee Chairman Qaiser Shaikh agreed his own visit to Sindh had revealed a very tragic humanitarian situation.

Sabir Hussain Qaimkhani, MQM member from Hyderabad, told the committee that it emerged during a coordination committee meeting, led by Federal Minister Khursheed Shah, that even the funds approved by the federal government to support flood-affected families had been given on the basis BISP data that covered the ‘deserving people’, who were overwhelmingly other than the ‘affected people’.

Dr Nafisa said the NDMA said 150,000 people were affected in Khairpur area but then 9,000 blankets or tents had been provided there. She said there was a complete mess on the ground and if 500 tents were supplied, 5,000 people were running to fetch them. She said given the sowing season, agriculture support by the government should be extended in a systematic manner.

Prime Minister’s Special Assistant on Finance Tariq Bajwa assured the panel that interest on loans to farmers in flood-affected areas had been waived by ZTBL while the government and the commercial banks were also sharing on the 50:50 basis the interest cost on agriculture loans.

Separately, he said, the government was also working with microfinance banks to introduce a similar scheme for landless farming families. The panel was also briefed about the actions being taken by SBP against treasuries of eight banks that earned exorbitant profits in exchange rate fluctuation.

Published in Dawn, November 17th, 2022