ISLAMABAD, Oct 18: President Pervez Musharraf said on Tuesday his government had planned to construct safe buildings and model villages under a reconstruction and rehabilitation programme for the earthquake-devastated areas of Azad Kashmir and the North West Frontier Province.
In his second address to the nation through radio and TV networks in a week, he said relief effort in the stricken areas had improved after initial problems since the killer earthquake struck on October 8. He urged the sufferers and donors to take benefit of an army relief network set up in the affected areas.
Dressed in his army uniform, Gen Musharraf repeated his call for generous donations to the President’s Relief Fund for the earthquake victims and reaffirmed ‘total transparency’ in the spending in which ‘nobody will be able to steal.’
He said while the gap between supply and demand in the relief work had decreased with increased supplies of relief goods from within the country and abroad, the government had begun planning about long-term reconstruction and rehabilitation to realise his idea of converting the present challenge into an opportunity.
“I will get it done, this is my resolve,” he said as he explained what he called his rehabilitation initiative to be implemented by the newly created Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority, headed by army Engineer-in-Chief Lt-Gen Mohammad Zubair.
The president said Gen Zubair would look around the world for technology for quick construction of government buildings and houses with modern facilities that could resist earthquakes and fire before a drawing up a plan that would be made known to the people.
“We want to build model villages where affected people could settle....,” he said but added that nobody would be forced to move into them and those wishing to rebuild their old houses would be helped in that regard.
The president said new houses would provide improved and modern living conditions and proposals were under consideration for providing pre-fabricated houses with fire-proof and quake- resistant capabilities.
In the rehabilitation phase, he said, the government would take responsibility to support orphans, widows and invalids and planned to build rehabilitation centres for the child victims.
Micro credit would be arranged through the Khushhali Bank to revive economic and business activity in the stricken areas, he said.
The president thanked local donors and international community for contributions to the President’s Relief Fund that he said so far amounted to Rs4 billion locally and $610 million from friends and Pakistanis abroad.
But, he said, the total cost of the reconstruction and rehabilitation would far exceed Pakistan’s capacity and appealed for more generous contributions.
The president particularly thanked Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for New Delhi’s aid contribution and said Pakistan had not refused to accept aid from India, except that in the form of military personnel, which had been rejected because of sensitivity of relationship between the two countries. All other aid from India such as relief goods and medicines
‘is welcome,’ he said, apparently referring to his government’s refusal to accept Indian helicopters if flown by Indian pilots.
“We are thankful to India for whatever aid is coming from there,” he added.
About army role in the relief operations, the president said 45 points had been set up in Azad Kashmir and the NWFP in coordination with the Federal Relief Commission for early and effective provision of relief goods and medical treatment to the sufferers. He said the points were being run by three army divisions deployed for the relief work with headquarters at Mansehra in the NWFP and Muzaffarabad and Bagh in Azad Kashmir.
He said donors or victims should call army officials at the points for guidance or help.
“You phone anyone of them, call a colonel or a brigadier, they will reply you and solve your problem,” he said.
The president said he had heard about cases of loaded trucks returning without distributing their relief goods for some reasons and directed military police not to let it happen. “There is no reason for loaded trucks to return.”
He said some of the earlier problems in providing medical treatment to the victims had been removed with the establishment of field hospitals by the army and foreign agencies.
President Musharraf advised local volunteer doctors wishing to work at field hospitals to contact army authorities for guidance.
