Pak’s “powerful and rich” diverted flood waters to protect their lands

ISLAMABAD - Pakistan’s “powerful and the rich” diverted floodwaters to unprotected areas in a bid to save their land, a representative of the country to the UN has claimed.

“Over the years, one has seen with the lack of floods that those areas normally set aside for floods have come under irrigation of the powerful and the rich,” the Independent quoted Abdullah Hussain Haroon, as saying to the BBC.

Some other senior officials have also made similar accusations.

Former prime minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali has alleged that water was diverted towards his land to save the Shahbaz airbase being used by Americans near Jacobabad.

The US Embassy in Islamabad, however has denied this charge, saying it does not use the airbase.

Prominent members of PML(N) party have been accused of diverting water from an area under the influence of two senior politicians, to Muzaffarnagar, now an abandoned town.

Landowners in Sindh claim that Khurshid Shah, a minister from Sukkur, had ordered an embankment to be cut in a way that water could not be diverted to the Thar Desert, the Independent reports further.

But the chief minister of Sindh, Qaim Ali Shah, denied any such deliberate diversion taking place. “The water is king. Wherever it wishes to go, it is its own decision.” He said. (ANI)