PTI government under fire over displaced persons’ misery

MINGORA: Awami National Party provincial president and former chief minister Ameer Haider Khan Hoti on Thursday criticised the PTI-led provincial government for failing to provide relief and shelter to most internally displaces persons of North Waziristan Agency. Talking to reporters here, Hoti said over 2.5 million people were displaced from Swat and other districts of Malakand division due to military operation during the ANP government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa but they all were provided with necessary relief and facilities. He said the current provincial government had miserably failed to provide relief to IDPs of North Waziristan. Hoti says there should be no restriction on IDPs’ movement The ANP leader demanded the immediate provision of relief and shelter to IDPs and said all displaced persons were Pakistanis and there should be no restriction on their movement in the country. He said his party had reservations about the last general elections, especially in the province, as militant threats stopped its leaders and workers from canvassing. Hoti said he thought PTI chief Imran Khan’s protest against the alleged election rigging in provinces other than Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was pointless. “We’d been forced to refrain from carrying out election campaign in the province, which is also rigging,” he said. The ANP leader said his party believed in political system and won’t be part of any struggle aimed at toppling the government. Earlier, he along with ANP leaders Mian Iftikhar Hussain, Aqil Shah, Sardar Hussain Babak, Wajid Ali Khan, Ayub Khan and Sher Shah Khan, met senior politician Afzal Khan Lala at his house in Dureshkhela area here and discussed political issues. Hoti also met disgruntled ANP leader Haji Hameedur Rehman at his residence in Kanjo and promised necessary action to address his reservations. He also went to the house of ANP leader Khalilur Rehman, who was gunned down lately, and offered fateha for the departed soul. Dengue Case A dengue case was reported in Mingora on Thursday taking the number of people suffering from the killer disease in Swat district to four. Local officials said Sahibzada of Bara Bandai area had tested positive for dengue and was admitted to a ward set up at the Saidu Teaching Hospital for such patients. The administration claims it has completed a dengue awareness campaign in all sensitive areas of the district. Assistant commissioner of Swat Ashfaq Khan said the administration had declared all nine union councils of Mingora city the high-risk areas and that all preventive measures against the disease had already been taken. “We hope there will be no outbreak of dengue this year,” he said, adding that public awareness of the ways and means to prevent dengue was more important than cure. He said the administration had created separate wards in civil hospitals of all sensitive tehsils in Swat for dengue patients. Meanwhile, Saidu Teaching Hospital chief executive Professor Taj Mohammad Khan said a 100-bed ward had been set up for dengue patients at the hospital. He also said the hospital had offered a separate outdoor patient department to suspected dengue patients. Published in Dawn, June 27th, 2014