ISLAMABAD, Oct 21: The government on Friday informed the National Assembly that it intended to set up “tent schools” in the earthquake-hit areas as early as possible so that educational activities could be resumed without any delay.
Federal Minister for Education Lt-Gen (retd) Javed Ashraf Qazi said there was a need to revive education system in the affected areas of the NWFP and Azad Kashmir where almost all schools and colleges had been demolished the massive earthquake on Oct 8.
The minister said his ministry had already started a survey in the affected areas with the help of Unicef, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and governments of Azad Kashmir and the NWFP to prepare a data that how many schoolchildren had died in the disaster.
On the basis of this survey, he said, the government would decide about the locations and classes for the proposed “tent schools”.
Mr Qazi said the federal government would bear all expenditures for setting up these “tent schools”. Similarly, he said, the federal government would provide books, stationery, blackboards and other necessary items while the NWFP had agreed to provide teachers for the schools.
The minister, who is also a former director-general of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), said opposition members were criticizing the army for its alleged negligence in the rescue and relief operations but they were not aware of many facts.
He said it was wrong to say that the army was not aware of its own losses in the earthquake after many days of the disaster.
He claimed that the general officer commanding (GOC) had reached the affected area in Kashmir within an hour of the disaster. Bodies of a large number of troops were still lying under the debris. He said a number of soldiers had died due to collapse of bunkers and barracks in Azad Kashmir.
He said 11 army officers and their family members had also died in the disaster. About the number of casualties, he said, over 400 troops had died and some 770 others injured in the October 8 tragedy.
Mr Qazi said the army engineers and the Frontier Works Organization (FWO) were busy in opening blocked roads. He said the US would soon send some special helicopters to Pakistan for lifting of heavy machinery after which the work on opening of the roads would be accelerated.
The minister told the members that the government had received some 15 models of low cost houses from other countries, which would be constructed in the disaster-hit areas.
Earlier, MMA chief Qazi Hussain Ahmed while taking part in the debate claimed that over 3,000 Pakistan Army troops, including one brigadier and five colonels, had died in the earthquake, but the army chief and army spokesman did not have any knowledge about the loss even after several hours of the disaster.
The MMA leader said the Zionist lobby had launched a propaganda that Al-Qaeda could penetrate in the earthquake-hit areas during the ongoing relief operation.
Mr Ahmed regretted that relief goods were not reaching to the deserving people. He alleged that there were reports that the government was confiscating relief goods from individuals and other organizations. He also expressed his concern over some reports that the government was not allowing some organizations to carry out relief activities.
The MMA leader called for constructing houses with steel structure in the affected areas to minimize the losses in the wake of any earthquake in future. He said that they had already prepared a model of such house which would cost only Rs100,000 with accommodation of one room, one wash room and a kitchen.
Mr Ahmed criticized the government for convening the meeting of the “controversial National Security Council” and termed it an “insult” to the parliament.
Federal Health Minister Nasir Khan informed the lower house that the government had received some 250,000 anti-tetanus vaccines.
He said immunisation of the all the affected persons had been started. He said efforts were on to revive health facilities in Azad Kashmir.
Mr Khan told the house that some of the unattended children, who had been airlifted to Islamabad, had been handed over to their relatives.
Dr Azra Fazal of the People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPP) regretted that Pakistan was a major exporter of tents but local tents were not available anywhere in the country. She suggested that the affected people should be provided ration for the whole week, instead of supplying them food on daily basis.
Hafiz Hussain Ahmed of the MMA asked the government to stop military operations in Wana and Balochistan to show solidarity with the opposition parties and the nation on the occasion of national tragedy.
Earlier, soon after start of the assembly session, PPP leaders Aitzaz Ahsan and Raja Pervez Ashraf and MMA’s Liaquat Baloch criticized the government for convening the session only for three days a week.
