Senators criticize army’s control of relief effort
By Ahmed Hassan
ISLAMABAD, Nov 11: Opposition lawmakers in the Senate strongly criticised on Friday what it called the bypassing of parliament, the cabinet and even prime minister in assigning complete control of the relief, rehabilitation and reconstruction effort to the army in the aftermath of the October 8 earthquake.
They said the task of rehabilitation of some 2.3 million people afflicted by the calamity was gigantic which could not be undertaken without involvement of people’s representatives.
The upper house started its 24th session with fateha for over 85,000 people killed in the quake and decided to start a full debate on the tragedy and its aftermath in light of the ongoing relief activities and the future plans of reconstruction.
Leader of the opposition Mian Raza Rabbani regretted that instead of involving the people through their representatives in parliament, individualistic decisions and centralized approach had proved total institutional redundancy.
He said the Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority under a serving general had been given unbridled powers and made independent of parliament’s or any other high office’s check which “gives credence to fears that army wants to keep everything under its own control”.
This authority, he added, was empowered to hire services of serving and retired army personnel as experts and engineers, thereby ignoring the civil engineers and experts and then providing almost all its employees indemnity from court action.
He condemned what he described as the government’s complete submission to India on the question of opening five points along the Line of Control and General Musharraf’s offer of demilitarisation of the territory without consulting parliament.
Mr Rabbani said that the cabinet committee on earthquake, which was formed on October 18 – late by 10 days — and then twice expanded, failed to meet even once to perform its duty of overseeing relief and reconstruction work.
He pointed out that the prime minister, cabinet, and parliament were not consulted when two high-powered bodies were set up to tackle the post-quake situation.
He criticised the act of allowing Nato troops to enter national territory for the first time in history and, most dangerously, without ratification by parliament. He said the country’s sovereignty and prestige was put at risk as Nato troops were allowed in.
He demanded that the Foreign Office table a copy of the agreement under which Nato troops were allowed to work and explain its “hidden” mission.
He cited Nato spokesman’s statement in which he had rejected a call by UN to undertake airlift work on the pattern it had performed in Berlin after World War II and said in plain words that there could be no comparison drawn between Pakistan and Berlin. That, Mr Rabbani alleged, meant west preferred whites over coloured Asians.
He said making parliament irrelevant in the whole process was a greater tragedy than the earthquake itself.
He slammed President Musharraf for giving a message to the world that the whole civil administration had collapsed by defining the role of army units working for relief and rehabilitation in his address to the nation.
He accused the government of failing to respond to the UN warning that 2.3 million quake-affected people were facing starvation.
He said Pakistan’s foreign policy had been exposed in the aftermath of the quake as Europe, “despite using us for its strategic interests,” had given a cold shoulder at the time of the calamity. It offered far less than it had offered to the tsunami victims.
He demanded that all funds, both from local and foreign sources, be put in one account under the State Bank authority and public representatives at the union council level be involved in the reconstruction work.
Muhammad Azam Khan Swati of MMA said that during his visit to Texas for fund-raising he was questioned by donors if there was any guarantee that another few generals will not become tycoons as had happened under General Ziaul Haq’s regime.
He stressed on strengthening institutions in order to give a message to the world that Pakistan was a proud and self-respecting nation which did not solely rely on the army.
He said that the earthquake had exposed Pakistan’s ability to meet such catastrophes with courage, discipline and meet the challenge of utilizing its resources in a transparent manner.
Hamidullah Afridi, Prof Ibrahim Khan, and Dr Khalid Ranjha also spoke.
The house witnessed a heated debate on the question of reported adoption of a quake survivor by a female pop singer in Karachi.
On a point of order by Abbas Kumaili and an offer by Azam Swati to adopt 50 orphaned children for his orphanage, Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Dr Sher Afgan Niazi promised to get back to the prime minister for an amendment to the relevant law on adoption.
Mr Swati made a fervent appeal for being given 50 orphans as he was “the largest patron of such children in the country” and provided them with the comfort of a home at the orphanage.
