Centre regrets Sindh's refusal to use Tiger Force services.

Byline: Amir Wasim

ISLAMABAD -- The tussle between the federal and Sindh governments over the functioning of the Corona Relief Tiger Force (CRTF) continued as Special Assistant to the Prime Minister for Youth Affairs Usman Dar accused the opposition of 'politicising' the volunteers' force without understanding its terms of reference (ToR) and the opposition terming it a mere 'political gimmick'.

Speaking at a news conference hours before Prime Minister Imran Khan's address to the CRTF members on Monday, Mr Dar said it was unfortunate that the Sindh government had refused to use services of 154,000 volunteers registered in the tiger force in the province only because the force had been created at the prime minister's initiative.

Mr Dar announced that the federal government would soon devise a mechanism so that these registered 154,000 volunteers in Sindh could serve the people of their province in this time of difficulty and this mechanism would be disclosed to the nation through media.

The prime minister's adviser alleged that the opposition was criticising the CRTF without even reading its TOR and mocked the opposition by stating that it had now decided to publish these TOR in Urdu for the convenience of those 'who had in the past distributed sweets after the announcement of the court's verdict in the Panama case in English'.

PPP says it does not feel need for such force

Mr Dar explained that the force had been created to help the local administration at the grassroots' level in the fight against coronavirus. He said the CRTF members would work as volunteers under the directives of deputy commissioners or assistant commissioners and they would have no powers over or access to public funds.

Moreover, he said, elected representatives of all political parties had been given representation in the committees at the district and tehsil levels to monitor the CRTF activities. He said since the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) had the largest number of MNAs and MPAs in Sindh, they would be part of these committees.

Mr Dar alleged that by refusing to utilise the services of the CRTF, the PPP was 'insulting' the passion showed by these volunteers to serve the nation in the time of need.

He said the Sialkot district administration had written a letter to Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) MNA and its parliamentary leader Khawaja Asif to...

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