Zardari apologizes over childbirth in rickshaw, gives 0.5m grant

QUETTA: President of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Women Wing Balochistan MPA Samina Raziq on Saturday gave Rs0.5 million to the family of the baby, who was born in a rickshaw during a traffic jam because of the road closure during the visit of President Asif Ali Zardari the other day.Earlier, President Zardari tendered apology over the incident in which a pregnant woman delivered a baby boy in a rickshaw during the traffic jam.MPA Samina Raziq later said that President Zardari telephoned her and tendered an apology over the incident. She said the people of Quetta suffered because of the president. She vowed that it would not happen again.The PPP leader said the president announced a token amount of Rs0.5 million for the family, which she later received and handed over to the family of Momin Khan, father of the child, on Saturday.Momin Khan, a labourer by profession, was on his way in a rickshaw along with his pregnant wife and mother from their home in Nawan Killi to the Civil Hospital on Thursday, when he was intercepted by the police near Askari Park on the Airport Road because of the VVIP moment and protocol of President Zardari.The rickshaw was forced to wait for more than three hours and the woman gave birth to a baby in the rickshaw.Reports said that Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani and Balochistan Chief Minister Nawab Aslam Raisani, however, showed a non-serious towards the issue.