KARACHI, Oct 12: The State Bank wants commercial banks to resume their normal operations in the earthquake-hit areas -— Muzaffarabad and Mansehra —quickly and has sought a security protection from the government.
After getting reports that rescue and relief operations have picked up in Azad Kashmir and many areas have opened up, the State Bank has despatched its managing director to Muzaffarabad where he held a meeting with area chiefs of the commercial banks and also with the authorities on Wednesday.
The resumption of banking operations will provide money to account-holders in Azad Kashmir so that they could plan to reconstruct their houses and do something for their livelihood.
“For the time being officers and staff of more than one bank can sit together and attend to their respective clients,” State Bank Governor Dr Ishrat Husain told Dawn on Wednesday in his office.
A message, received from the chief manager of the State Bank from Muzaffarabad, reveals that the central bank’s office is intact but its 26 employees are not attending the office.
“About 70 per cent of Muzaffarabad has been razed to ground,” the message said and pointed out that numbers of dead and injured could not be counted because of the obvious reasons. “There is no water and electricity in the area,” it said.
The State Bank governor is resuming a series of meetings from Thursday with the senior management of all banks to discuss their issues and focus on the problems in the quake-affected areas.
“There are 136 bank branches in Kashmir,” Dr Husain said while pointing out that the SBP managing director is carrying out an initial assessment of losses and damages to the banks.
Initial reports suggest that quite many branches have survived the earthquake jolts. But the staff of these banks -— about 1,000 -— in all is missing. Some of them might have died or are buried under the rubbles. But a large number of staff is either busy looking after their shelters because their houses are damaged or helping their relatives.
“To begin with, the banks must address the problems of their staff and help them financially in construction and rehabilitation,” the SBP governor said.
Asked about the impact of earthquake on the national economy and if it would force the government to have a fresh look at the budget 2005-06, Dr Husain replied that it was too early to say anything. “Let the losses and damages be assessed first and let us wait for the response of general public to government’s appeal for donations.”
He said the first priority was relief and rescue to be followed by rehabilitation and restoration of the damaged infrastructure and then would come the phase of normal activity.
Response of the public in Pakistan and from foreign countries is encouraging but is not directed towards the areas where assistance is needed much and urgently.
The State Bank governor found the response of general public very encouraging. Dr Husain suggested that the people in Kashmir and Mansehra should be given financial assistance to raise their livestock, which is the main money earning vocation.
But most of the five million people affected by the Saturday’s earthquake come from the low income group whose main livelihood is construction labour, transport and doing odd jobs like chowkidars in Karachi, Hyderabad, Lahore and other places. Every government in the last 58 years gave these people a low priority when it comes to the allocation of resources.
Even on Saturday when the earthquake struck, media persons and the government did not know that Kashmir and Mansehra had suffered the havoc. For almost the whole day the focus was on Margala towers in Islamabad and very little attention was paid to Kashmir and Mansehra as if these places were on the moon and not located in the immediate vicinity of Islamabad.
Both Kashmir and Mansehra are the areas where government’s investment in infrastructure —- roads, electricity, water, etc -— is much lower than other areas in the country. Therefore, the contribution of these areas in the country’s GDP of about $120 billion is the least. Business exists in the rudimentary form and lack of infrastructure facilities has not allowed tourism to grow in both the areas.
In otherwise gloomy scenario there is a bright side. Both Kashmiris, mostly from Mirpur, and Pashtuns constitute a big segment of Pakistan’s three million plus expatriates in Saudi Arab, the UAE, the UK and Europe and the US and North America. They contribute a significant share in Pakistan’s $4 billion annual remittances.
Pashtuns constitute the bulk of Pakistan’s workforce in the UAE and maintain a close knit network among themselves who can be motivated by their social and political leadership to come forward in a big way in the rehabilitation of their kith and kin in Mansehra. Mirpuris in the UK and other parts of Europe are also expected to play a big role in bringing back to life the lush green Neelum valley and other parts that lay half dead now because of the earthquake and decades of negligence by Islamabad.
