{"id":12543,"date":"2025-09-05T15:52:54","date_gmt":"2025-09-05T10:52:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pakjazbo.com\/?p=12543"},"modified":"2025-09-05T15:52:57","modified_gmt":"2025-09-05T10:52:57","slug":"govt-pti-spar-in-national-assembly-over-federal-flood-relief","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pakjazbo.com\/?p=12543","title":{"rendered":"Govt, PTI spar in National Assembly over federal flood relief"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The federal government and the PTI were at loggerheads in the National Assembly on Friday as the latter claimed \u201cnot enough\u201d was being done to provide relief to those affected by the recent floods in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and boycotted the session over the disqualification<\/a> of its lawmakers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Record rains in KP, which started on August 15, have wreaked havoc<\/a> across the province. The provincial government declared an emergency as torrential rains ravaged homes, displaced families, and left a trail of destruction across Buner, Swat, Shangla, Mansehra, and beyond.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PTI Chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan expressed his dissatisfaction with the help provided by the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) to the flood-affected population of KP, particularly Buner \u2014 the worst-hit area in the province \u2014 stating that the authority \u201cdid not help as much as it should have\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI say at this forum that we will continue to be at odds with the NDMA,\u201d Gohar said on the floor. \u201cI said day-before-yesterday that the NDMA only gave us a few supplies in Buner, while 236 people have been killed, 120 are injured, and 1,470 shops and 875 homes have been destroyed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gohar was then interrupted by Law and Human Rights Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar, before Speaker Ayaz Sadiq stepped in and offered to arrange a visit of the opposition to the NDMA\u2019s head office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tarar termed Gohar\u2019s complaint as \u201cpolitics just for the sake of politics\u201d and urged the party to focus on people\u2019s issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The law minister explained that disaster response has three tiers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere is a district disaster management authority, which the province\u2019s deputy commissioners run; then there is the provincial disaster management authority, which is also run by the province,\u201d Tarar said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe NDMA centres around information sharing. I will provide a detailed explanation, but if the opposition asks questions for the sake of politics and then walks out, then I don\u2019t know what assembly we are sitting in.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The speaker noted that PTI lawmakers will claim they did not have any room to speak in the House, despite Gohar and PTI stalwart Asad Qaiser having spoken on several occasions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Later, Tarar said that Rs1.3 billion had been released to the NDMA for flood relief and other activities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe nation needs to work together for flood relief,\u201d the minister said on the floor of the National Assembly. \u201cThe federal government is working with provinces on relief operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The minister added that the NDMA releases alerts and has a mobile app.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe recommend that those in affected areas download the app; 92 per cent of predictions are accurate,\u201c he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cRelief is a long way, so we ask that the nation stand with and help their brethren affected by floods,\u201d Tarar said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/a>\u2018Ready to sit and talk on Balochistan\u2019: Talal Chaudhry<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Minister of State for Interior Affairs Talal Chaudhry addressed the house and spoke about the issue of missing persons, expressing the federal government\u2019s willingness to sit with the Balochistan government and other political figures in the province for talks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe government has no tolerance for missing persons. No institution wants to be blamed, nor accused of violating any sort of law,\u201d the state minister said. \u201cThe government is always ready to take other parties on board or have an all-party conference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chaudhry noted that the suicide bombing at a Balochistan National Party-Mengal rally in Quetta earlier this week took place without security clearance from the interior ministry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPolitical gatherings are soft targets for terrorists, which is why we insist that programmes of this nature need security clearance,\u201d the minister said. \u201cThere is a lot of information required before granting security clearance for events like this, which is why we discourage it.\u201dMinister of State for Interior Affairs Talal Chaudhry addresses the National Assembly on September 5. \u2014 Screengrab via YouTube\/PTV Parliament<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The state minister added that the government is ready and willing to speak to the Balochistan government and prominent political figures, as the government had done in the wake of the Jaffar Express attack earlier this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have always said that we need to sit,\u201d Chaudhry said. \u201cThe centre stands with the provinces amid terrorism, the National Action Plan or other matters. This scourge of terrorism will only be defeated if we stand united politically.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Separately, the state minister said he was in contact with the Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC), which is participating in an ongoing sit-in<\/a> in Islamabad. However, he did not mention the group by name, nor who he was in contact with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group is protesting for the release of remanded<\/a> group members, including chief convener Dr Mahrang Baloch<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDaughters of this country are sitting on an important road in Islamabad, claiming that we do not care about them,\u201d Chaudhry said. \u201cThis is not true. We are trying to provide security and facilitate them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are trying to handle things legally, but a lot of people are going to the protest for photo sessions and point scoring,\u201d he added, stressing that the government nonetheless remains open to talks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI have no issue going there on behalf of the government,\u201d Chaudhry said. \u201cWe have remained in contact, but their demands cannot be fulfilled by us. The courts have made decisions; we cannot just bail people out and send them home.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The federal government and the PTI were at loggerheads in the National Assembly on Friday as the latter claimed \u201cnot enough\u201d was being done to provide relief to those affected by the recent floods in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and boycotted the session over the disqualification of its lawmakers. Record rains in KP, which started on August 15, have wreaked […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12544,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","inline_featured_image":false,"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_3859443944190656_798604363342440":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12543","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pakistan"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakjazbo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12543","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakjazbo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakjazbo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakjazbo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakjazbo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12543"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pakjazbo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12543\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12545,"href":"https:\/\/pakjazbo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12543\/revisions\/12545"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakjazbo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakjazbo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakjazbo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakjazbo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}