ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Sunday convened an all parties’ conference (APC) excluding Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), the largest opposition party which is in power in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab, Gilgit Baltistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir, today (Monday) to chalk out a joint strategy to deal with damages caused by devastating floods.

In wake of the floods which have claimed over 1000 lives besides displacing millions across the country and caused massive loss to the national economy, it needed a unified response as the natural calamity wreaked havoc in all parts of the country.

On the one hand, the government calls for unified response to deal with the damages done by the floods while on the other it is still silent over inviting PTI which governs majority areas of the country.

PTI chief Imran Khan has said that his party would collect huge donations for the reconstruction and rehabilitation of the flood affected areas.

A senior PML-N leader who declined to be named said that extending invitation to PTI to participate is futile as it will not attend the moot no matter how important it is.

He said that the federal government would make all-out efforts for reconstruction of flood affected areas as millions of people have been left homeless who needed shelters on war footing as winter is approaching.

“We’ll chalk out a strategy to help people from all over the country who have been affected from the recent floods,” he added

He said that the prime minister convened the APC to devise short and long-term strategy to deal with the situation, arising out of the torrential rains and flash floods in the country.

However, Khurram Sher Zaman, a PTI MPA from Sindh, in a tweet, criticized the government for not inviting PTI to the APC wrote: “Crime Minister holding APC on floods but doesn’t invite the largest party in the country, PTI. I ask the public and media, who is playing politics on floods now? This is proof of pettiness of Imported Govt & PDM”.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022