PESHAWAR: Lack of coordination between the government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and federal government is badly hampering the rescue and relief work in the flood affected areas, particularly in the remote mountainous places of Kalam to safely evacuate tourists stuck there.
Presently only a single helicopter, that is also an official one, of the chief minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government, is being used to evacuate the tourists from Kalam to downtown in Swat.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, besides visiting other flood affected areas on Wednesday, flew to Kalam valley and met with the tourists, including women and children, stranded there since the devastating floods on August 26, and assured them the government would soon rejoin them to their families in their native areas.
However, he didn't make any announcement regarding contribution of the federal government in the rescue and relief operation that the KP government had started on very limited scale, apparently due to lack of resources and helicopters.
The prime minister also met a few local elders in Kalam and listened to their grievances but they were not given opportunity to express their feelings openly.
There is growing frustration among the people that the federal government had been left alone in the crisis. They also expected the prime minister to make announcement regarding for repairing the 35 kilometres road between Kalam and Bahrain that his elder brother, former prime minister Mian Nawaz Sharif, had built with a cost of Rs10 billion back in 2018 and won hearts and minds of the people. The road had brought prosperity to that largely forgotten region and restored tourism. However, most of the road and bridges have been washed away in the floods. And 40,000 people in Kalam and its adjoining hilly areas are now depending on the only helicopter.
Additional Deputy Commissioner Swat, Abrar Wazir who is now present in Kalam to lead the rescue and relief operation, told The News that nearly 400 people, mostly tourists, had been evacuated safely to the Saidu Sharif Airport in Mingora.
"We have a single helicopter of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government that so far took 17 sorties. There are still more than 1000 people here in Kalam and waiting for their evacuation," ADC Abrar Wazir said.
Regarding rumours of food and medicines shortage in Kalam, Abrar Wazir dispelled such reports, and said everything was normal but the biggest issue right now is safe evacuation of the tourists and other people stuck in Kalam and its adjoining areas.
Meanwhile, official sources told The News that Pakistan army has offered three more transport helicopters to be used in the rescue and relief operation from today, Thursday, and would be flying to Kalam, Mataltan, Palogah and Gabral.
Also, another encouraging news was about the Frontier Works Organization (FWO) moving heavy machinery to the flood affected areas of Swat and their first assignment is to install the steel bridge in Bahrain to restore traffic and machinery to launch work on the road between Bahrain and Kalam.
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