ISLAMABAD, Nov 9: The World Bank, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) have jointly finalized their damage assessment report which puts the funding requirement at $2.78 billion for the reconstruction of Azad Kashmir and the NWFP.
However, the government has confronted this assessment by saying that the damage was “three times greater” which warrants urgent re-assessment to be done and placed before the international donors conference being held here on Nov 19, informed sources told Dawn.
The issue would again be discussed between the government and donors on Thursday.
Senior representatives of the three donor agencies do not believe that reconstruction would cost $5 billion or $10-12 billion as is being estimated by the Planning Commission of Pakistan.
They are of the view that the government needs to have a realistic assessment of the damages so that the international community, especially major donors and Pakistan’s bilateral partners, could be convinced about it, the sources said.
Donors are assessing the damages on the basis of historic cost of houses, schools, buildings, etc., which means the original cost along with 10 per cent depreciation but this is not a proper way to assess things,” a source said, alleging that donors “have their own agenda to pursue” in the aftermath of the devastating October 8 earthquake.
The sources said that the World Bank wanted to take control of the NWFP to start rehabilitation and reconstruction activities. In this regard, the bank also wanted the government to do “proper publicity” - an ambition that has not so far been given much consideration by the federal authorities.
Some of the government officials, the sources added, also did not understand as to why representatives of the AJK and NWFP governments were not largely consulted in the matter of damage assessment.
“How can we ignore the opinion of AJK and NWFP officials,” a source said, regretting that local people had not been taken into confidence over the issue.
Some officials of the Planning Commission wanted to actively involve the representatives of the AJK and NWFP governments to carry out the damage assessment but their advice was not given importance, the sources said.
