LAHORE: A strong rooted politco-religious party, Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) Pakistan, chief Syed Munawar Hasan has appealed to the general public and the philanthropists to step forward for the help of the calamity-hit people of Thar.
He was having a briefing from the Al-Khidmat Foundation chief Dr Hafizur Rahman, on the relief arrangements of the JI’s sister body in the Thar area.
Dr. Hafizur Rahman said that the Al-Khidmat foundation had set up its base camp in headquarters of Thar, Mithi, and truck loads of relief material had already been distributed among the affected people. He said that Medical camps set up at Mithi, Islam Kot, Chachro and Nagar Parkar, with the help of the PIMA ( Pakistan Islamic Medical Association) were providing medical help and medicines to the sick. Al-Khidmat ambulances were also busy in relief work. Cooked food was being supplied to the marooned people.
Dr. Hafizur Rahman said that after the worst drought in Thar in 1998, the Al-Khidmat Foundation had embarked on a big project to dig out wells for supply of drinking water. Under the project named Zam Zam, as many as five hundred wells of drinking water had been dug out so far from which an average of 500 people and 1200 animals were being fed.
The Al-Khidmat had also opened 42 Hut schools in the far flung areas of Thar under Al-Ilm project to promote literacy. He said that about five hundred people had been provided jobs under the interest free loan scheme.
Syed Munawar Hasan commended the efforts of the Al-Khidmat Foundation in the calamity affected areas and urged the people to donate generously for the relief body.
Meanwhile, the JI chief has deplored the indifference of the government and the constitutional institutions on the issue of missing persons. He was talking to a delegation from Sialkot including representatives of the traders, Ulema, led by the deputy chief of the JI, Sialkot district, Hafiz Tahir Aslam, which called on him to press for the recovery of Maulana Hafiz Abdul Jabbar Shakir.
He assured the delegation that the JI would make every possible effort for the recovery of the missing persons.
