At least 3.9m children, women need food support

ISLAMABAD: Over 2.5 million children under the age of five have been affected by floods, says a report released by an international anti-poverty agency.

There are about 1.4 million (eight per cent) pregnant and lactating women among the affected people and over one million are elderly or otherwise vulnerable.

The Actionaid report said there was an urgent need for nutrition assistance, especially for young children and pregnant and lactating women.

It said also called for community-level programmes to fight acute malnutrition and dissemination of messages on feeding and hygiene for infants and young children in the affected areas.

The number of schools being used as shelters has decreased to 5,258 and 1.3 million people are living in them.

At least 9,484 schools have been damaged and there is a need to provide temporary structures and supplies such as tents, school-in-a-box kits and recreation kits to ensure continuation of education during the transition period from tents to permanent buildings.

Government schools in Punjab are due to reopen on Sept 14.

At least 436 health facilities have been damaged or destroyed and there is a need to prevent emerging health threats and outbreaks of diseases and to ensure that essential medical supplies reach affected communities in time.

Increased numbers of suspected malaria cases are being recorded in Sindh and Balochistan.

UN assessment teams have reported a 20 per cent increase in the use of unprotected water sources and confirmed a widespread need for sanitation assistance.

Households have indicated a need primarily for cash grants, material for repair of houses and rehabilitation of lost livelihoods. Movement of people back to their homes in areas where waters are receding requires relief and early recovery responses.

Some relief camps are being closed in southern Punjab, including three of the initial 11 camps managed by the army.

People in camps are being encouraged to return to their areas in order to register for compensation.

Many areas in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh and Balochistan are still hard to reach or inaccessible.

The report says that specific needs of women and children in terms of health, hygiene and protection are not being addressed. There are security risks in some affected areas, including Balochistan and parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and southern Punjab.

Camps do not offer enough space for people to keep their surviving livestock.

Some families have started to return to their damaged houses, while those who have lost their homes are putting up in the camps.

There is a serious risk of diseases, including malaria and diarrhoea, spreading in the affected areas.

Medical aid is not enough and essential medicines are scarce. The report stresses the need for a plan to ensure the displaced children’s right to education.

It calls for immediate launching of cash-for-work programmes to generate income for affected people, decrease their dependence on handouts and kickstart local economies.

The Actionaid said it was developing a framework for a longer-term response spanning over three years, covering coordination, financing, protection from violence against women, livelihoods, community participation, climate change, etc.

Aamer, Asif axed from awards list: source

KARACHI: Embattled Pakistan bowlers Mohammad Aamer and Mohammad Asif, currently embroiled in a corruption storm, have been dropped from the International Cricket Council’s annual awards list.

“The pair’s nominations have been withdrawn and the jury has been informed,” an ICC spokesman confirmed to AFP without giving further details.

Aamer was in the running for the best emerging player award while Asif was listed in the best cricketer category.

The awards ceremony will take place in Bangalore on Monday.

Aamer and Asif, as well as Test captain Salman Butt, are all being investigated following allegations of ‘spot-fixing’ in the fourth Test against England last week.

All three have been charged by the ICC with “various offences” under its anti-corruption code and they have been suspended pending a decision on those charges.

FIA clears three in hosing of BB’s assassination site

ISLAMABAD: A joint investigation team (JIT) of the FIA set up to look into the hosing down of the place where former prime minister Benazir Bhutto was assassinated has absolved former ASP Syed Ashfaq Anwar, AIG (CID) Chaudhry Abdul Majeed and DCO Mohammad Irfan Elahi of responsibility in the incident.

According to sources, the team has asked the interior ministry to remove their names from the Exit Control List (ECL).

The Federal Investigation Agency has asked the government to allow the two police officials and the former district coordination officer to resume their duties.

FIA Special Investigation Group (SIG) Director General Mohammad Khalid Qureshi said a letter had been sent to the ministry in this regard.

However, he did not reply when asked if any of the police officials under investigation had left for the United Kingdom on a scholarship.

The JIT is yet to complete its investigation into the role of former Rawalpindi city police chief Saud Aziz, SSP Yasin Farooq and SP Khurram Shahzad Haider.

The SIG, which is investigating the murder case, had found out in May that the telecommunication record book of Rawalpindi police had been “tampered with” and interviewed three officials of the police telecommunications wing, besides an SP on whose alleged order it had been done.

ASP Syed Ashfaq Anwar who had been posted in the headquarters and who was assigned to provide box security (supervision) to Ms Bhutto was also interviewed by the JIT for more than three hours in connection with the tampering.

Telecommunications Wing DSP Munawar Gill and operators Ahmed Nawaz and Bilal Ahmed were the other personnel who were interviewed.

The Lahore High Court had ordered the removal of Mr Anwar’s name from the ECL on a petition filed by him.

The officer has been waiting to leave for the UK on a British Council scholarship.

The government had placed the names of SP Ashfaq Anwar, former CPO Saud Aziz, SSP Yasin Farooq, SP Khuram Shahzad, DCO Irfan Elahi and additional inspector general of police Abdul Majeed on the ECL after constituting a three-member committee to probe into the hosing down of the place after the assassination.

The names of a former director general of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Lt-Gen (retd) Hamid Gul, former Intelligence Bureau chief Brig (retd) Ijaz Shah and former federal secretary Kamal Shah were also placed on the ECL.

A UN report on Ms Bhutto’s assassination had said that, contrary to police’s assertion, there was no police-provided box formation around her as she arrived at a rally and the Elite Force unit did not execute their duties as specified in the security deployment. The United Nations commission said it did not believe that the full escort as described by police was ever present.

US renews support for democratic set-up

ISLAMABAD: While democracy got one boost from the resolution that was passed in the National Assembly on Friday, it also got a shot in the arm from the pleasantries exchanged between the prime minister and a visiting US delegation.

Jim Marshall, a US Congressman, who was accompanied by four colleagues, assured Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani of the American government’s commitment to Pakistani democracy.

“The US administration, as well as the Congress, strongly desire continuation and strengthening of democracy in Pakistan and believe that its relationship with Pakistan is absolutely grounded on civilian and constitution based set-up.”

Uttered on Friday afternoon as the parliament was passing a resolution in favour of democracy, the words must have sounded reassuring to the prime minister whose government is once again facing the rumours of an early death.

The floods have left in their wake a fractured polity in which hostility between various coalition partners at the centre as well as at the provincial level appears to have reached new levels.

The statement by MQM leader Altaf Hussain in which he invited “patriotic generals” to take martial law-like steps is a case in point. In fact, his statement strengthened the rumours that the PPP government was on its way out.

A political observer told Dawn that the recent trip of the chief of army staff to Saudi Arabia where he met the Saudi king as well as intelligence chief Prince Muqrin Bin Abdul Aziz added to the buzz.

It is noteworthy that within days of Gen Kayani’s trip to the kingdom, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi also visited the country and held a meeting with Prince Muqrin.

However, the rumour mills may slow down if not stop completely with this latest message from the Americans.

The visiting Congressmen, according to the official press release from the prime minister’s house, said the delegation “during their meeting with the Chief of the Army Staff earlier in the day… had highlighted these US sentiments”.

It went on to add that the delegates “assured the prime minister of USA’s support for establishing civilian institutions and building their capacity for disaster management and relief activities…”

At a time when Pakistan is so crucial to American foreign policy goals in the region, such a strong American statement in support of democracy is bound to be noted by all political stakeholders. However, when Dawn contacted a security official to get the army’s response to the development, he declined to comment; he said that “as a matter of policy the military does not comment on political debates, issues and controversies”.

The US delegation included Representatives Jane Harman, Peter Welech, Charies Dent and Cythia Lummis.

Floods ravage K.N. Shah, threaten three towns

DADU: Floodwaters gushing from seven breaches in Khuda Wah inundated a major part of Khairpur Nathan Shah and 10km of the Indus Highway from Yousuf Naich village to Mehar bypass on Friday.

The waters were heading towards Mehar, where the administration issued a last warning to residents of the town and adjoining areas to leave their homes.

A grid station, the civil courts, taluka hospital, police station, boys’ and girls’ colleges, banks and houses were inundated in Khairpur Nathan Shah.

People climbed onto rooftops as the water level rose to six feet and continued rising.

Over 14,000 people were in the town and they were facing a shortage of food. A rescue operation was yet to be launched.

Floodwaters were also surging towards Sita Road town after inundating 30 villages near Khairpur Nathan Shah. A large number of families displaced from the villages camped out in the open on the Johi branch embankment.

The Indus Highway was under three feet of water and traffic between Dadu and Larkana was diverted towards the Sita-Mehar link road.

Displaced people were going towards Sita Road on foot because of lack of transport.

The town of 30,000 was itself under a threat as raging torrents were just six kilometres away.

The MPA from the area, Imran Zafar Leghari, advised people to leave Sita Road.

The administration began work on an embankment around Mehar in the evening.

Waters flowing from three artificial cuts of 1,000 feet in Johi canal, at Bello Patan and Kari Mori, reached Thareri Mohbat and inundated 20 villages. The waters were heading towards Johi town.

The town was also under threat from breaches in the Main Nara Valley drain at Pir Mashaikh village. Three villages and a five-kilometre stretch of road were washed away in the taluka, suspending traffic between Dadu and Johi.

The residents of Johi started vacating the town, opting for Kachho and a mountainous strip nearby.

Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah visited Dadu and had an aerial view of Johi and Khairpur Nathan Shah.

Troops were deployed along the MNV drain embankment in Johi.

At least 24 breaches in the drain in Johi, Mehar and Khairpur Nathan Shah talukas had not been plugged when we went to press.

Wapda takes up Munda dam project

LAHORE: The Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) decided on Friday to invite expression of interest (EoI) for consultancy services for detailed engineering design and preparation of tender documents for the Munda dam project.

The dam will be built on River Swat on a priority basis in the wake of recent floods which have wreaked havoc in the country, especially in Nowshera and Charsadda districts.

To be built about 5km upstream Munda headworks in Mohmand Agency, the dam will help prevent flood, ensure availability of irrigation water and provide low-cost electricity.

The feasibility study was conducted about 10 years ago and donor agencies and financial institutions are ready to finance the project.

The dam will store 1.29 million acre feet of water to irrigate more than 15,000 acres and generate 740MW, contributing 2,400 million units of cheap electricity to the national grid.

It will play a vital role in protecting Nowshera and Charsadda by storing the water of River Swat during peak floods. The Swat and Kabul rivers have been the biggest threat to Nowshera and Charsadda with maximum flows of nearly 400,000 cusecs during the recent floods. The project will help avoid simultaneous flooding in both rivers.

It will be the biggest multi-purpose hydropower plan after the 969MW Neelum-Jhelum project and the 4,500MW Diamer-Bhasha dam

Suicide bomber strikes Al Quds rally; at least 56 killed

QUETTA: At least 56 people were killed and about 160 others injured here on Friday when a suicide bomber struck a procession brought out to mark the Al Quds day. The bomber blew himself up when the rally, organised by the Imamia Students Organisation, reached Meezan Chowk.

Soon after the blast some armed men in the procession started firing into the air, triggering chaos and panic. People fled or lay on the ground to avoid the gunfire.

All shopping centres and business establishments shuttered down in no time after an angry mob set on fire several vehicles and ransacked some shops.

They also attacked DSNGs of different TV channels and fired at the Aaj van, killing its driver. Three policemen were injured.

The outlawed Lashkar-i-Jhangvi has claimed responsibility for the attack. A spokesman identified the bomber as 22-year-old Arshad Muavia. But according to a report from tribal areas, a spokesman of the Tehril-i-Taliban Pakistan claimed responsibility for the attack.

According to official sources, the provincial government imposed a ban on religious processions.

“It was a suicide attack,” Balochistan home secretary Akbar Hussain Durrani told Dawn. He said that organisers of the procession had been alerted to the threat.

Bomb disposal squad officials said the device packed 15 kilograms of explosives. The impact of the blast smashed windows of a number of shops and buildings.

Police found limbs of the bomber and sent them for forensic tests.

Balochistan IG Iqbal Malik said the organisers had agreed at a meeting that the procession would not go up to Meezan Chowk.

“They were stopped at a place agreed upon for terminating the procession, but they violated the written agreement,” Mr Malik said.

The procession started from an Imambargah on Prince Road after Friday prayers. When it reached near Islamia High School, police stopped the processionists from moving ahead. But they refused, broke the police cordon and marched on Meezan Chowk.

Sources said the bomber had entered the rally near Baldia Plaza and detonated the explosives during speeches by some ISO leaders.

Thirty-five people died on the spot and the rest in hospitals. A number of dead and wounded lay in pools of blood. The blast also enveloped motorcycles and bodies in flames. “I saw a young man entering the procession and after that a powerful explosion took place,” Saqib Khan, an eyewitness, told Dawn. He said that after the blast heavy gunfire shook the area.

An emergency was declared in all government hospitals in Quetta. Thirty bodies were taken to the CMH, nine to the Civil Hospital and two to Bolan Medical College Hospital.

Thirteen people with bullet injuries were taken to the Civil Hospital.

“Fifty-six people were killed and over 160 injured in the blast,” DIG (Operations) Hamid Shakeel said.

Iqbal Malik, the police chief, constituted three teams to investigate the incident.

Amanullah Kasi adds: The Balochistan Shia Council and Ittehad Tajran Balochistan called a shutdown in Quetta for Saturday. They appealed to traders not to open their shops in protest against the attack. The BSC also called for a 40-day mourning.

The Awami National Party, Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-F, Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party, PML-N, Jamhoori Watan Party (Talal), Jamaat-i-Islami and Muttahida Qaumi Movement condemned the bombing.