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Relief delayed for getting media attention

    Islamabad: If a Pakistani daily report is to be believed, a junior federal minister intentionally delayed the despatch of relief material to the earthquake-hit victims in Muzafarrabad so as to get clicked along with Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz while flagging off the relief material (to the quake-hit areas). Quoting a Presidency source, the News reported that the President Secretariat was 'informally' informed that a convoy of 12 trucks loaded with relief goods provided by the Cabinet Division's Emergency Relief Cell, had reached the Sports Complex in Islamabad, on Tuesday evening, but the relief material was dispatched to Muzaffarabad the next evening since the concerned state minister wanted to do flag it off in the presence of Prime Minister. According to the paper, the minister, whose identity was not revealed, "did not dispatch the convoy of trucks carrying relief goods to affected areas for 24 hours to get the media's attention".

     The concerned minister, however, denied the reports insisting that under the instructions from Federal Relief Commissioner Maj- Gen Farooq Ahmed, he had to hold on the dispatch of relief goods for several hours. "I rather pressed for the relief goods' early dispatch and sent them soon after Iftar the same day," the state minister said adding, "the colour given to my sincere efforts has really hurt me." He added that bureaucrats might be giving such colours to his efforts because he was "pressing them hard to work". Meanwhile, according to the paper, relief and rescue operations were being hampered because of VVIP visits to the affected areas and hospitals. In one instance, top administration officials of Mansehra were recently found involved in protocol duties instead of doing the relief work. At another place, said the paper, a mother of an injured child, being treated in a local hospital, was barred from entering the hospital building for quite sometime because of a VVIP visit. Some of the ministers are getting the media focus while flying high on the choppers while others look for on the ground media focus events, added the report.