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SC orders to implement flood commission report
ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court has ordered the federal and provincial governments to implement the Flood Inquiry Commission report in letter and spirit and sought the order compliance report in this regard, Geo News reported.
The order was passed by a three-member bench of the apex court, comprising Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Justice Tariq Parvez and Justice Amir Hani Muslim. The court also ordered the governments to submit implementation report after every 15 days.
The bench was hearing a case pertaining to the alleged unauthorised diversion of floodwater and willful breaches in the embankments of barrages and canals by influential people to save their lands during the devastating 2010 floods.
The Flood Inquiry Commission on Monday submitted its 200-page final report in the Supreme Court, revealing that the negligence of the Irrigation departments of Sindh and Balochistan had caused a colossal loss of Rs855 billion to the national economy during the devastating floods of 2010.
On December 15, 2010, the apex court had constituted the Flood Inquiry Commission, headed by Muhammad Azam Khan and comprising Fateh Khan Khajjak, A.W Kazi and Kh Zaheer Ahmed, to investigate the damages caused by the 2010 flood that engulfed Pakistan and caused unprecedented damage to life and property.
The Supreme Court had taken suo motu notice of the matter on the letters of renowned lawyer Fakhruddin G Ebrahim, Deputy Chairman Senate Jan Muhammad Khan Jamali, Dr Asad Leghari, Muhammad Rahim Baloch and advocate Zahida Thebo, requesting the chief justice to probe the matter of breaches in dykes and unauthorised diversion of floodwaters by influential people to save their lands.
The report said the embankments were breached due to the negligence and corruption of the Irrigation departments. Local influential persons had encroached thousands of acres of land in katcha areas. Among those directly responsible for the deluge of Guddu are the chief engineer, in-charge XEN and their staff, the report said.
The Commission recommended that it should be ensured that all the illegally-constructed structures on government lands, which had been destroyed by the recent floods, should not be allowed to be re-erected. It noted that some governments sold out their acquired lands in pond areas to raise revenue, while under the law, no construction of any infrastructure was allowed to be erected within a distance of 200 feet from banks of the river/streams.
Courtesy www.geo.tv