Landgrabbing by fake IDPs won’t be allowed: governor

[Lahore_Real_Estate]

KARACHI: Defending action against hooligans and gangs of activists at work to grab public and private properties to accommodate professional encroachers in buildings and apartment complexes in different areas of the city, Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ibad on Friday said that such activities in the name of hospitality to internally displaced persons (IDPs) could not be allowed.

Briefing Karachi-based diplomats about the Sindh and CDGK relief operations to handle an unprecedented massive influx of flood survivors into the metropolis, the governor dispelled the impression that hosting and looking after them was an issue.

“Constant arrival of IDPs on a very large scale from the flood-hit areas of the Sindh interior is not at all an issue and everyone of them is being looked after properly and provided with all basic necessities of life, including food and health care facilities,” he told the diplomats.

However, he added, action was being taken by the law-enforcement agencies against those who were trying to occupy lands and buildings in the name of IDPs taking advantage of the situation.

He thanked all the countries that had responded positively to Pakistan’s appeal for help in this testing time by sending relief goods, medical teams, machinery and equipment and other articles to save life and property of disaster-hit population of the country. He noted that Islamabad was keeping world leaders fully informed about the needs of the millions of affected people.

Provincial Disaster Management Authority Director-General Mohammad Saleh Farooqui gave a briefing to the foreign diplomats about the massive relief operation under way in Sindh and the devastation caused by the worst-ever floods hitting the province in the country’s history.

He said that 19 of 23 Sindh districts were badly affected by the natural calamity as all three barrages — Guddu, Sukkur and Kotri — in the province had been experiencing super floods since the arrival of deluge early August. So far, he said, 120 deaths could be confirmed officially in the flood-related incidents in the province. He said more than 5,000 villages and 35 cities and towns were affected by the disaster.

He informed the diplomats that as many as 2,000 relief camps had been set up across the province by the government. An initial assessment estimated the losses at around Rs500 billion, he said, adding that the amount did not include the losses pertaining to devastation in Thatta and Dadu districts.

Mr Farooqui said that the housing sector alone had suffered losses to the tune of Rs200 billion.

An accurate figure of losses, he said, would emerge only after flood water receded and a final assessment was done.