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| October 31, 2005 | Monday | Ramzan 26, 1426 |
BoGs to run family support plan
LAHORE, Oct 30: Chief Minister Pervaiz Elahi announced here on Sunday the administrative set-up of the “Support a family relief programme” that would be run by a board of governors with the help of Nadra.
Under the programme which would be launched soon after Eid, overseas and local Pakistanis would adopt initially 100,000 families comprising an approximately 500,000 people affected in the earthquake areas of Azad Kashmir and the NWFP. Each family would get Rs6,000 a month for at least one year.
The chief minister told a news conference that the head office of the programme would function under him in Lahore and it would have a chief executive.
It would have offices in Islamabad, Mansehra and Muzaffarabad where the field staff would maintain a liaison with the affected families and monitor the delivery of the monthly subsistence to them. The staff would also arrange meetings of the recipient families with the donors so that the latter could know who they were supporting.
He said all families would be registered with the donors with the help of Nadra, which would provide their data. The entire operation and the money to be donated would be displayed on a website to ensure transparency.
The chief minister said the response from the overseas Pakistanis and local philanthropists was overwhelming, and many wanted to adopt even 100 to 300 families. The government would enrol more families for the subsistence after achieving the current target.
The government, he said, would adopt the families whose members had become disabled, whose heads had died and those who had no means to earn.
It would basically develop a link between the needy families and the donors here in Pakistan and abroad. “We have half a million Pakistanis in America and one million in Europe; a majority of them have no problem in sending $100 to a family every month.
“After developing a liaison with a destitute family, they would surely continue to extend assistance even after the targeted one year,” the chief minister said.
ARTIFICIAL LIMBS AND WHEELCHAIRS: Earlier, he said the sector commanders in the affected areas had now demanded artificial limbs and wheelchairs for those who had become handicapped. And in response, the government had set up a workshop in Mayo Hospital with the help of a Pakistani British parliamentarian, who had met him two days ago along with some others.
“We already make artificial limbs in the hospital, but would take benefit of the expertise of the Pakistani who has offered his services voluntarily,” he said.
Later, he sent 100 wheelchairs to the Punjab government health facilities in Rawalpindi and the affected areas. Over 300 more would be sent there soon, he said.
ORPHAN CHILDREN: Replying to a question, the chief minister said the government was in contact with the centre for the adoption of at least 500 children, who had lost parents or families in the earthquake. Each related provincial organization would keep 200 such children in Lahore and Rawalpindi and 100 in some other city, he said.
He said the soldiers of other countries and NATO were only assisting the relief measures in the affected areas and no-one must worry about their presence in Pakistan. Mainly the Pakistani army was conducting the operations and the foreign soldiers were either flying their helicopters or their doctors attending the patients.
Pervaiz Elahi said complaints about plundering of the relief goods had come down because these were being distributed mainly by the army. People were handing over their relief goods to the army because they could not deliver these to the deserving because of the their inability to go deep into the devastated areas.
He said the federal government was not objecting to the Punjab’s proposal to establish two tent cities here. It was correct to assume that the affected people should stay at home but, at present, they needed a shelter in the plains to avoid extreme cold weather conditions.
The chief minister said he had removed all problems of the tent manufacturers and now they would deliver them by Nov 30 in a huge quantity. Each tent would cost around Rs6,000 and the manufacturers were taking the job purely as a human service, he said.
He said the provincial government would now not send stoves to the affected people because of a recent incident in which three people were burnt to death while cooking food in a tent. They were being provided with cooked food in Azad Kashmir and the NWFP by the government staff and the PML volunteers, he said.
The government had released all equipment, medicines and staff for establishing a new hospital in Balakot earlier in the morning.
In response to a question, he invited the opposition to join hands with the government in helping the affected people in the hour of trial. There should be no politics in the national cause, he said, wondering how much unity was shown in the opposition meeting held on Saturday.
He said the Punjab government had so far sent relief goods and services worth Rs1.50 billion to the affected areas. This was in addition to the goods sent by the people and private parties, he added.
The chief minister appealed to the people to observe Eid with simplicity to show solidarity with their affected brethren. Instead of buying new clothes for the occasion, they must send money to the needy.
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