Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Special initiatives Ahsan Iqbal on Tuesday said that Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government had failed to implement Flood Protection Programme (FPP) multiplied fold damages in the country. Addressing a press conference, the minister said that in 2013, when the PML-N government took charge, the country had already faced devastated floods in 2010 and it launched the fourth phase of Pakistan FPP to minimize the impacts of such floods."In May 2017, we got approved the Programme from Council of Common Interest and duly signed by all the provinces and it was agreed that new infrastructure would be built under the programme", the minister said. The minister said it was also agreed that Rs 177 billion would be spent under the programme and the provinces would contribute half of the amount.

However, he said despite completing the final road map to spend Rs 177 billion under the programme, the coming PTI government dumped this programme and not spent a single rupee on it. "If the government spent Rs 177 billion under the programme, the loss would be far less than what we were facing now, he added. Ahsan Iqbal said a big challenge was ahead as 30 million people had been affected from devastating floods and the government had to help them achieve self-reliance,adding that the recent floods and torrential rains had destroyed around 1 million houses. The minister said due to the current catastrophic situation in the country, Pakistan requires $10billion to overcome the situation that evolved after the flood.

Credit: Independent News Pakistan-INP