• Kh Asif terms flood devastation ‘man-made disaster’
• Calls for building small dams, reservoirs, instead of mega projects
• Terms local govts essential for disaster management
• House to formally begin debate on floods today
ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly’s new session on Monday began with an unusual display of unity as lawmakers from both sides of the aisle expressed solidarity with flood victims, but this bonhomie proved short-lived as the opposition refused to attend a briefing by the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA).
Addressing a news conference outside Parliament House soon after the adjournment of the sitting, PTI leaders, including Barrister Gohar Ali Khan and Asad Qaiser, announced they had decided not to attend the briefing on the orders of incarcerated party leader Imran Khan.
Proceedings continued only for an hour or so before Speaker Ayaz Sadiq cut short the sitting, announcing that the NDMA had arranged a briefing for some 100 MNAs at 6pm and asking members to attend it.
Earlier, the house suspended the normal agenda of the day and decided to initiate a full-fledged debate on the ongoing flood catastrophe that had caused massive devastation in the country’s northern areas and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, besides inundating a vast area of Punjab due to release of water by neighbouring India.
Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Dr Tariq Fazal Chaudhry moved a motion to begin a formal debate on “the situation arising out of the recent devastating floods in the country”.
‘Man-made disaster’
The highlight of the brief NA sitting was the speech of Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif, who termed the recent devastation caused by floods “a man-made disaster”.
The minister also called for local government elections in the country, besides stressing the need for building small dams and reservoirs to avert such tragedies in future.
“The catastrophe we are facing [today] cannot be called a natural disaster,” the minister declared.
“We have done value addition by constructing hotels and houses on waterways. We have encroached riverbeds,” he said, adding that this was the third or fourth such disaster in last 12 to 14 years.
Without naming anyone, he said when someone would be obliged to build a housing society on a riverbed, nature would react.
“In KP also, the people had encroached natural flow of rivers. What steps we have taken to remove encroachments on waterways after the country faced similar floods some three years back. He said they would face such tragedies again and again if they did not change their way.
Highlighting damages caused by floods in his home constituency, Mr Asif alleged a “contracting company” had destroyed his city of Sialkot.
“They are influential people and sitting in the Senate,” he said, pointing the finger at Zahir Khan and Bros (ZKB).
It was unfortunate that all big dams had been built by military dictators, while politicians had built hotels on riverbeds, he regretted.
He suggested building hundreds of small dams and reservoirs, instead of waiting for decades to build mega projects, warning that water would become an extremely scarce commodity in the future.
He was of the opinion that they needed to build small dams, which could be completed within a year or two.
“Do not do politics on it. We have political differences, but climate is a national, rather international issue, and it needs a national response,” he said.
LG system
“A comprehensive and robust local government system is needed to serve the masses in the cities, villages and tehsils,” said the minister amid desk-thumping by the members, regretting that presently there were no local body institutions in Punjab and other parts of the country.
The local bodies were essential for disaster management, he said, adding that power must be dispersed to towns, villages, tehsils and districts.
Earlier, Ali Muhammad Khan of the PTI said the federal government should come forward to help KP people. He called for a detailed parliamentary discussion on water issues and the need for building new dams.
“The whole house should think over it as to how we can build dams and reservoirs. There should be no politics on the issue of dams,” the PTI leader said.
He asked the federal government to complete work on Mohmand Dam project that had been started by the PTI’s government.
He said political parties had failed to build even a single big water reservoir.
PTI Chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan drew the attention of the house towards the flood devastations in his Buner constituency, stating that 240 people had died and another 120 were still missing.
He said the party had suspended its political activities in Punjab due to flood situation.
He praised the KP government and the armed forces for their role in the rescue efforts in the province.
He, however, termed the assistance so far provided by the federal government “insufficient”.
PPP’s Naveed Qamar urged collective national action against climate change and environmental mismanagement.
The PPP leader warned that floods could be 22pc more destructive next year, while in the long term, melting glaciers might dry up the Indus and other rivers, turning fertile lands into deserts and threatening centuries-old ecosystems.
Published in Dawn, September 2nd, 2025
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