Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif stated on Saturday that federal government has decided to get PM Relief Fund audited by the Accountant General Pakistan Revenues (AGPR) and a private firm of global standing.
While affirming that incoming and outgoing funds will be audited, he assured that the audit report will also be made public.
This is the most important decision taken by PM Shehbaz Sharif to ensure transparency in the utilisation of the fund being collected for relief and rehabilitation of the flood affected people.
This will also give confidence to those contributing in relief fund that their donations will be rightly and fairly used.
When it comes to charity, Pakistani people show great enthusiasm for helping those in distress.
Islam like other religions lays great emphasis on helping those in need and Muslims everywhere have kept alive this charitable trait.
However, it is also a fact that because of the follies of political leadership, our people do not trust governments when it comes to giving donations for some noble cause.
There is a general perception in them that their donations will be misappropriated or will be used somewhere else by the government.
This is the reason that our people mostly give their donations to charitable organisations such as Al-Khidmat Foundation and Edhi who indeed have an unblemished record spanning over many decades of serving the humanity with complete honesty and transparency.
However, audit decision by the PM is a step in the right direction as it gives message of government’s commitment to heal the wounds of those affected in catastrophic flooding.
We are confident that this will encourage the people including expatriate Pakistanis to donate funds in the government’s relief fund without any qualm or anxiety of being misused.
The country has never witnessed such a large scale devastation before as the floods have damaged critical infrastructure and crops besides killing livestock, thus leaving hundreds of thousands of people with no livelihoods.
Rebuilding lives of these people is a herculean task, and no single government or institution can do it alone.
Hence, responsibility rests with the whole nation to come forward and donate generously to bring normalcy back in the lives of flood victims.
We will also suggest the federal and provincial governments to divert their development funds to the reconstruction and rehabilitation of affected areas, and the focus must be building back better.
The message of unity given by the political and military leadership from the platform of National Flood Response Coordination Centre (NFRCC) is the way forward to successfully steer the country out of flood challenge.
