War of words between Unicef, Pak officials over ‘fake relief camp’

ISLAMABAD - A ‘fake relief camp’ which was set up in Charsadda for a few hours’ for the visit of Unicef’s Executive-Director Anthony Lake, has resulted in a war of words between the Pakistan Government and Unicef officials.

Media reports point that an emergency camp was set-up at a public sector educational facility just for this particular visit.

However, this camp remained there for a few hours only. After the delegation left, the shelter for flood victims was done away with.

There is now apparently a war of words going on between the Pakistani government officials and Unicef over who was responsible for the camp, the Dawn reports.

Charsadda’s EDO (health) Dr Fazle Akbar said that he had no prior information of the relief camp set up at a public sector educational facility in the district.

He said that Unicef officials from the Expanded Programme on Immunisation called him early in the morning and invited him to visit the camp.

“I was informed by them that a ceremony had been arranged by their organisation and that they were inviting me to the camp which did not exist before the ceremony,” he said.

However, Unicef has also washed its hands off the whole affair and claims that it had nothing to do with the camp.

Unicef- Pakistan chief Martin Mogwanja said: “We are working in close coordination with district health officials of KP and non-governmental bodies. The relief camp in Charsadda was meant to provide services on mobile basis because affected people keep moving from one place to another and go wherever such facilities are easily available.” (ANI)