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| November 15, 2005 | Tuesday | Shawwal 12, 1426 |
Package demanded for quake-victims
PESHAWAR, Nov 14: The combined opposition in the NWFP assembly has called upon the provincial government to announce an economic package for quake-affected people who are not in a position to pay loans and taxes after shifting into tents.
Criticising what he called government’s divide-and-rule policy towards the opposition parties after earthquake-like national tragedy, Opposition leader Shahzada Mohammad Gistasip said the government wanted to form an ineffective house committee to handle the post-earthquake situation.
He said Senior Minister Sirajul Haq had assured the house last week that leaders of all parliamentary groups and lawmakers from the quake-hit areas would be taken on the house committee, but the government had not invited all opposition leaders. He asked the government to rise above party politics and adopt a positive attitude.
He said some quake victims who had taken loan from the House Building Finance Corporation were either sitting on the rubble of their home or had moved to tent villages. People who had taken agricultural loans were facing a similar situation, he added.
The house, he said, had adopted two resolutions in a previous sitting, one suggesting that all loans be written off and the second seeking withdrawal of utility bills issued to people of the calamity-hit districts, but the house had not been informed about the fate of resolutions.
Mr Gistasip said if the international community could be criticised for its lukewarm response to the misery of the affected people, the provincial and federal governments should be asked to take and effective measures to redress their problems. He said the government was neither serious nor capable of handling the situation. The opposition was ready to cooperate with the government, but the latter was politicising the issue, he added.
Anwar Kamal Khan of the Pakistan Muslim League (N), criticized what he called the government’s divide and rule tactics, and its post-quake policy.
MPA Mazhar Qasim from the Kawai area of Kaghan, who remained partially buried for over eight hours in the debris of his home on Oct 8, told the house that he had narrowly escaped death. He lauded the response of the people and welfare wings of political and religious organisations who rescued and helped the injured.
He said the army aviation had airlifted 30,000 injured people from Kaghan to hospitals in Islamabad and the NWFP.
He said in the Jaraid village of Kaghan, 1,700 families were still waiting for tents while winter was setting in. These people were using straw and maze bundles to keep themselves warm, he added.
Mr Qasim said that in the 92-mile stretch of Kaghan Valley, the quake had left over 250,000 people homeless in 12 union councils. The MPA said that at least 16,000 people had died only in the Balakot area. He thanked his fellow MPAs for their timely help for the affected people of the valley.
On a point of order, Bashir Ahmed Bilour of the Awami National Party drew attention of the house to the purchase of two helicopters by the NWFP government. He said it was unthinkable to place purchase orders at a time when the government was without enough money to run relief operations.
Law and parliamentary affairs minister Malik Zafar Azam told the house that the government was sincere in taking MPAs from the affected areas and all parliamentary leaders on the house committee to look after relief and rehabilitation work. He said the government had decided last year to purchase the helicopters, because it considered them to be a necessity, not a luxury.
Earlier, journalists covering the assembly proceedings staged a walkout against ransacking of the Peshawar Press Club by students of the Government High School No.2 on Monday morning.
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