ISLAMABAD, Nov 8: Treasury and opposition members in the National Assembly on Tuesday expressed reservations about the sincerity and competence of the government to judiciously use funds for rebuilding the cities destroyed by the October 8 earthquake.
During debate on the earthquake and its aftermath, members of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement and the Jamaat-i-Islami clashed over claims about quantum of relief goods that both had provided in the affected areas.
While the MQM claimed that it had established relief camps in the quake-hit areas ahead of any other organization, the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal accused it of misusing and embezzling the Rs1.25 billion that it claimed to have collected in Karachi.
The MMA accused the MQM of advancing Indian agenda in Azad Jammu and Kashmir instead of providing relief to the survivors and of injuring its worker Imran Shah by opening fire in Muzaffarabad on Tuesday.
The attendance in the lower house when it resumed proceedings after Eid was thin but the government persuaded the opposition to cooperate in running it without raising the issue of quorum.
Some MNAs expressed the fear that hundreds of thousands of survivors might die as neither army nor any other agency had reached a number of places with relief goods.
A woman member from a village in Battagram said the grant of Rs25,000 to owner of a destroyed home was insufficient even for removing the debris of a house.
It was a private members’ day but the house decided to re-open the debate on the earthquake and its aftermath and abandon the regular agenda.
Raja Pervaiz Ashraf of the People’s Party Parliamentarians read out a news item stating that while other leaders passed their Eid day in quake-hit areas, Pakistan Muslim League president Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain went to Mandi Bahauddin with his two brothers and Punjab Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi by helicopter for fishing.
No one defended the PML leaders and Speaker Chaudhry Amir Hussain dismissed a point raised by the parliamentary affairs minister, who said that anyone absent from the house and unable to defend himself could not be discussed.
“This house has witnessed heavy criticism on the persons of former prime ministers Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto, both in exile and unable to defend themselves,” the speaker said.
Earlier, the house business advisory committee agreed to re-introduce the debate and continue cooperation between the opposition and the treasury on the quorum issue.
Hanif Abbasi of the MMA, through a point of order, demanded an impartial inquiry into the murder and dismemberment of the body of a 21-year-old man allegedly by a gunman of a federal minister in Rawalpindi.
Zamurd Khan of People’s Party Parliamentarians announced to build 25 houses from his resources in Phulwari village when Bilquis Saif of the MMA complained that the government and all aid agencies except Al Khidmat had failed to reach her village, where more then 150 houses were destroyed but no one had died. She asked the government to enhance the compensation for destroyed homes to at least Rs200,000.
Dr Farid Ahmed Piracha said that while Al Khidmat had worked day and night for rescue and rehabilitation, the MQM was involved in extortion in the name of quake victims. He warned that thousands of survivors faced death if timely provision of shelter, food and heating to them was not ensured.
He criticized the army for its slow movement and failing to come up to the expectations of the survivors. He said the rulers would be responsible if the affected people remained deprived of necessary assistance in inaccessible areas.
Kunwar Khalid Yunas said a strong MQM team comprising 18 MNAs and seven senators had visited almost all the quake-hit areas to distribute relief goods and spent nights with the survivors for more then a week. He said no other party could name a leader to have matched the MQM’s services.
Shah Jehan Yusuf of the PML, who belongs to an affected area in Mansehra, said all the political and religious parties had contributed a lot in mitigating the sufferings of the victims in his constituency.
Earlier, the government informed the house that a plan to bring down the prices of compressed natural gas kits by starting their domestic manufacture was under consideration.
Parliamentary Secretary of Cabinet Division Dr Firdaus Ashiq Awan said in response to a call-attention notice that around 1,600 companies were importing CNG kits and their prices were deregulated.
She said the prices of the kits had risen in the wake of a three-fold increase in oil prices over the past three years with only three per cent increase in the price of CNG.
