Baloch people want direct flood relief aid, not via Islamabad: Minister

QUETTA - Fed up by the federal government’s negligence over the plight of flood affected people in the province, Balochistan’s Communication and Works Minister Mir Sadiq Umrani has urged donor countries to give funds ‘directly to the people of the province and not via Islamabad.’

Talking to reporters during a press conference here, Umrani said the Balochistan government is unable to handle the enormous crisis alone with over a million people needing medicine, food, clean drinking water and shelter.

“We want direct aid from neighbouring countries and not via Islamabad”, he said, adding that if immediate relief does not arrive, people would start dying of hunger.

Umrani said more than 5,000 villages and 195-kilometres roads, including a large portion of the national highway has been washed way and standing crops over 1,86,844 acres have been destroyed, and the relief reaching the people is very little in comparison to the need.

Umrani, whose party-the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) is heading the coalition government in the country, also urged countries like Iran, Saudi Arabia and other Middle-East nations to help the people of Balochistan, who are finding it hard to cope with the country’s worst floods. (ANI)