No words or expression to articulate the devastating Ahmed Pur Sharkia tragedy: Marriyum

ISLAMABAD June 25 (APP): Minister of State for Information,
Broadcasting and National Heritage Marriyum Aurangzeb has
expressed profound grief and shock over the loss of
precious lives and burn injuries to scores of others in an
inferno that followed the overturning of an oil tanker near Ahmed Pur Sharqia Sunday morning.
Talking to news channels, she said that those who sustained burn injuries were being provided all possible medical facilities
on the direction of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. And Chief Minister
of Punjab Shehbaz Sharif was personally supervising the relief
and rescue operations as well as the steps being taken to help the
people of the area, she added.
She said that the injured were being transferred to burn
centers of different hospitals of Punjab including Allied hospital Faisalabad, Children and Meo hospitals Lahore, Rahim Yar Khan
and Multan where many of them had been shifted.
The minister informed that Punjab government had also
arranged medical facilities at private hospitals for the injured and
some of them had been shifted to the private hospitals
The minister said that the federal and provincial governments
and armed forces were doing their best for providing relief to
the affected people and the personnel of all the institutions
under them were present on the scene of the accident to help the
people. She also urged private organizations to play their due role in rescue operations. She lauded the efforts of the Edhi Foundation
in that regard.
Marriyum observed that it was an incident of
cataclysmic proportions and the entire nation shared the grief
of the affected families and stood with them in this hour of
bereavement.
The minister said that there was an imperative need to
create awareness among the masses about the hazards and dangers
involved in such situations to prevent recurrence of similar
tragedies in the future, adding that PTV and Radio Pakistan would
be advised to air awareness porgrammes designed to educate people on how to behave and react in such circumstances.
Marriyum also appealed to the entire media to carry out a sustained campaign in this regard.
The minister revealed that under Shahbaz Sharif’s Burn Unit Plan number of burn units in different hospitals of the province were being set up to cope with such emergencies as well as to deal with individual burn cases.
She said that the provincial government had already added 74
beds for burn cases in Jinnah Hospital Lahore, 72 beds in
Nishtar Hospital Multan, 74 in Allied Hospital Faisalabad,
whereas patients were also being shifted to Sheikh Zaid Hospital
for early treatment to minimize chances of casualties.
Marriyum stressed the need for formulation of
standard operating procedures to prevent and deal with such
incidents and assured that those responsible for this calamity
would be dealt with iron hands. She said that OGRA had asked
for the detailed investigative report of the incident.