Karachi: Over 100 people, including many children, have reportedly died in Pakistan`s Sindh province due to severe malnutrition in what has been described as a famine-like situation that has alarmed the government.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has taken serious notice of the incidents of childrens death in Thar, Sindh, a statement from his office said.
Sharif has directed National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) to immediately get in touch with authorities in Sindh and provide all possible aid and assistance.
TV footage showed crying malnourished children. It was described as famine-type situation.
Forced to act after the media outrage, the Sindh government on Friday ordered a probe into the death of children who reportedly died of pneumonia and malnutrition in a stretch of the Thar desert.
According to media reports from Mithi, one of the least developed and most remote districts in southern Sindh province, over 100 people have died in the last three months.
"It is a very serious matter and we have deputed a senior member of the party and officials to probe into the deaths," Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah told reporters.
The chief minister also ordered the arrest of senior health officials for neglecting their duties, saying they had failed to move the children to hospitals in the bigger cities.
He said the director health as well as the director and the deputy director livestock have been suspended.
The Chief Minister said that the affected children were not sent to good hospitals as a result of negligence, which added to the dire situation in the district.
There was only one hospital in Tharparkar, Shah said.
He said the children were dying because of pneumonia and malnutrition.
Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif expressed grief over the deaths caused by the famine in Tharparkar.
He instructed the Director General (DG) Provincial Disaster Management Authority Punjab (PDMA) to send relief aid as soon as possible.
Former chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry wrote a letter to Chief Justice of Pakistan Tassaduq Hussain Jilani, asking him to take notice of the media reports.
The provincial government usually declares a state of drought in Thar by September or October when there is low rainfall during and after the monsoon season.
However, with moderate to low rainfall occurring until late September last year, the government pushed the announcement forward and the provision of relief was thus delayed, reports said.
