Immediate relief in cash form being extended to people affected by floods: minister

ISLAMABAD: Federal Information Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb on Monday said that Prime Minister Relief Fund worth Rs5 billion has been allocated for flood victims.

While briefing the media, she said that immediate relief in the form of cash is being given to the flood victims on the instructions of the prime minister. The media also informed the public about the program regarding the distribution of 25,000 rupees per household. One million rupees are being provided to the heirs of those who died in the flood. On the instructions of the prime minister, immediate relief in the form of cash is being given to the flood victims.

Federal Minister for Information said that the people of these areas will be able to buy their necessary items with this money, in areas where the NDMA cannot provide food and medicines. Prime Minister Relief Fund worth Rs5 billion has been allocated for flood victims. The prime minister has directed that funds be given to the NDMA for immediate relief activities. Emergency relief and rescue activities are ongoing. Joint service work has started with the NDMA, Provincial Disaster Management Authorities.

The work has started for the compensation of the affected houses.

An amount of one million rupees per person has been allocated for the deceased persons, the distribution of which has been going on for the last one month. She said “we all have a responsibility to contribute to the Prime Minister’s Relief Fund. No government alone can fight such a big disaster”.

Regarding foreign funding case she said that the accountant firm that kept submitting their statements to the Election Commission has told the Election Commission through a letter that they have nothing to do with this record. Firms said that we used to submit statements based on the information that was given to us. The Election Commission also kept asking the PTI for KASB Bank account details. Earlier, ASB Bank wrote a letter saying that we need some time to give the details. Then the bank wrote again that our software is bad. During the four-year tenure of Imran Khan, KASB Bank did not provide any details to the Election Commission and their software remained sitting. The Election Commission also asked the bank for the account details of four PTI employees, Marriyum Aurangzeb said.

She said Akbar S Babar also kept writing to the bank to provide us with details, but no details were provided. According to the details coming from the bank, the Central Finance Board of the PTI’s National Campaign Office Muslim Town Lahore allowed to open the account. Foreign funding of Rs78 crore came into this account, it was withdrawn through the KASB Bank of Rs78 crore funding. The KASB Bank account was opened with the approval of the Union Finance Secretary. With the signatures of the Central Finance Board, the money was withdrawn from these accounts and went to their personal accounts, the details of which have reached the FAI.

The address of PTI’s two offshore companies is 2 Zaman Park. Imran Khan was asked several times about these two companies, these companies had also appeared in the Pandora Papers.

She said Bank accounts were opened in the names of four people named Umar Farooq, Fariduddin Ahmed, Hamid Zaman, and Azizullah. The Finance Board of the PTI allowed the opening of these four accounts and money from offshore companies came into these accounts. When Imran Khan was asked, his spokespersons said that we have no remote connection with these accounts. This account was hidden from the Election Commission for eight years, now the KASB has provided its data, the details have come, and this data has reached the FIA.

She said Imran Khan kept saying for eight years that the Election Commission has no jurisdiction. Now he says that I will not answer. She said that the one who lectures others on the law is running away from the law.

Aurangzeb said that Imran Khan’s aim is to spoil Pakistan’s economy by spreading chaos. She said his political career is dead as the Election Commission has declared him “a foreign agent”.

She said Imran Khan is addicted to spectacles, dramas, gossip, and narrative based on lies. Imran Khan laid economic mines in the last four years, destroyed the IMF program, so that the country goes bankrupt. The current government is steering the economy in the right direction. We are solving other problems, including the disasters of the last four years, inflation, the destruction of the economy, said the Federal Minister for Information.

Aurangzeb said inflation would come down; people would get jobs, as our economic stability plan is linked to it. When Imran Khan realized that the economy was improving, he tried to create sedition, corruption, chaos, and political instability. If he had to fix the economy, he would not have bankrupted the economy. She further said that Imran Khan ran away from the foreign funding case for eight years.

Imran Khan stopped investigations in Billion Tree Tsunami, Malam Jabba, BRT Peshawar, helicopter, and other cases, the Federal Information Minister said. They only made noise for four years; they did nothing but put political opponents in jails. He used state power to create a narrative based on false allegations. When it came time to give evidence in the courts, they showed nothing that could prove their narrative.

She said Imran Khan had promised to give one crore jobs to the people, he also ran away from this promise. While talking about rehabilitation activities, she appraised the media for doing a great job of creating awareness.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022