KARACHI: Rehan Hashmi, Chairman District Municipal Corporation Central has informed he was compelled to call army for help to save around 2 million people living in low lying areas from stormy rains in the district as Sindh Local Government Minister, Jam Khan Shoro, Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner Central did not respond to his telephone calls. “Under sheer duress and agony, I finally emailed Army for help and they responded instantly and reached at the rain affected parts of district for rescue operation”, Rehan said while talking to Daily Times. Army personnel remained busy in rescuing people living in low lying areas from inundated water, dewatering rainwater from underpasses and shifting people to safer places in parts of district Central. Rehan said that he also called Deputy Mayor Arshad Vohra for solution, and he advised him to call Army for help as Chief Minister and Governor Sindh were not present in the country. On SOP matter, Rehan firmly stated that he wanted to save lives of people during heavy rains and thus ignored the lengthy procedural matters in this respect. Under Standard Operating Procedure (SOP), it is mandatory for civil administration, Sindh government, commissioner, his deputies and Election Commission to seek Army help in time of any emergency. He claimed that Sindh government had not provided emergency funds to district during last 12 months for tackling the situation besides de-silting of nullahs and removing offal and garbage accumulated in parts of district. “We have used our district workforce for rescue and cleaning of areas in district and no private contract for such jobs had been given”, he said adding “with the help of Army and Rangers, we carried out the rain-related job. We have also carried out lifting of offal and garbage from parts of district with the help of our staff”. Mayor Karachi, Waseem Akhtar on this development was of the view that saving life and property of people has always been taller than time taking process and waiting for help and in this regard Army and Rangers have done well in district Central. Meanwhile, Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah during a rain emergency review meeting has asked acting Commissioner Karachi to explain the reason behind the presence of Army in District Central without adopting SOP by Deputy Commissioner Central. Acting Commissioner Karachi, Farhan Ghani, informed the meeting that Deputy Commissioner Office and he himself were not aware of presence of Army in district Central and came to know about this development through media. Published in Daily Times, September 7th 2017.