By Asim Hussain
ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Climate Change Senator Sherry Rehman on Monday said the recent floods in the country were the biggest tragedy after 1971 when Pakistan had lost its eastern part.
Speaking in the Senate, she said there was no environment of business as usual in the country after the recent record breaking floods. Some 33 million people, she said, were affected due to the floods and their sufferings still continued. About 20 million of them were without basic necessities, she added.
The minister said during the recent monsoon season, 700 percent more rains were recorded in Sindh and 600 percent more in Balochistan.
She said the World Bank had estimated an impact of 40 billion dollars on Pakistan due to the devastation of recent floods. Some 13,000 kilometers of roads and 36 bridges were completely destroyed which needed to be restored on urgent basis for connectivity, she added.
She criticized the opposition for carrying out public rallies and doing politics at the time when the country needed unity the most. “You should be ashamed, when the countrymen are suffering, you are taking oath from your followers like Hitler for staging protests and a long march,” the minister said.
Responding to the climate minister’s statement, Leader of the Opposition Senator Shahzad Wasim claimed that Sindh was sinking not because of climate change but “the corruption of provincial government”.
