A relief camp just for Gilani’s visit

[1]

A relief camp was set up overnight ostensibly for those affected by the rains in Pakistan’s Sindh province so that Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani could visit it to see firsthand what relief measures the government was providing, a media report said on Tuesday.

Dawn said that Gilani visited the fake relief camp set up in Umerkot on Monday. He arrived by helicopter at the Benazir government Girls College where a “temporary relief camp” had been set up Sunday night. Around 20 people have died in Sindh province due to heavy rains that triggered flash floods. Sources said peasants belonging to areas of some Pakistan Peoples Party legislators were put up in the camp while a number of rain-affected people living by the roadside outside it for the past few days were barred from entering the premises.

Gilani waved from a distance to the people in the camp, shook hands with a lawmaker and returned to the helicopter. After Gilani left, the affected people tried to pull down the tents but they were attacked by PPP workers, the report said.