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| October 30, 2005 | Sunday | Ramzan 25, 1426 |
MQM to build 5 schools in quake-hit areas
ISLAMABAD, Oct 29: The Mutahidda Qaumi Movement (MQM) plans to build at least five permanent schools and two hospitals in the earthquake devastated parts of Azad Kashmir and North Western Frontier Province (NWFP).
This was announced by Member of the National Assembly Syed Haider Abbas Rizvi while addressing a press conference here on Saturday. He was flanked by MNAs belonging to the MQM including Nawab Mirza Advocate, Dev Das, Abdul Waseem, Nisar Kunwar, Afsar Jehan Begum, Shamim Akhtar, and Dr. Abdul Qadir Khanzada. Syed Haider Abbas Rizvi said Mutahidda workers in Pakistan as well as abroad have contributed Rs1.10 billion for relief goods. He said a team of MQM technocrats from the United States would soon come to Pakistan with pre-fabricated houses worth millions of dollars for the quake victims.
He said the MQM has also decided to reconstruct the building of Muzaffarabad Press Club with the financial assistance provided by the party chief, Altaf Hussain. He said the MQM wants to mobilize government machinery with full force for collecting the actual data of casualties, homeless, deaths and injured in the quake-hit areas before starting the rehabilitation and reconstruction. He said the international media was terming the earthquake in Pakistan as the third largest natural disaster. He, however, said it could be declared as the most devastating quake in the history after the correct statistics was known.
He called for compiling a credible and comprehensive data to provide concrete basis for planning to start reconstruction in the calamity-hit areas.
Haider Abbas Rizvi said that government efforts in this regard were not up to the international standard that may further aggravate the already-worsened relief situation in the affected places.
He escaped a question that MQM would demand of the government to invite exiled leaders including Altaf Hussain, Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto to come to Pakistan at a time when the country is passing through a crucial juncture.
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