ISLAMABAD, Nov 15: Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz on Tuesday called for greater unity in the ruling PML and accepted the mediator’s role by participating in mediation talks between the dissident group and party president Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain.
Answering journalists’ questions at the PML house here, the premier without commenting on the demand of the ‘forward bloc’ that he should take over party leadership, expressed the hope that the issue would be resolved through negotiations.
He said he was still unaware of the names of the 35 members of the bloc.
Earlier, the leader of the bloc, Mian Riaz Hussain Pirzada, had claimed that the prime minister knew the names of the 35 MNAs.
Accompanied by Chaudhry Shujaat and PML Secretary- General Mushahid Hussain Syed, the prime minister said he was ready to do whatever he was asked to do by the party to keep it united and strong. Earlier, speaking about the government’s efforts for making the earthquake relief and reconstruction process transparent, he said the parliamentary group proposed by him would soon hold its meeting and he would extend invitation to the concerned leaders, including the opposition leadership, with whom he was in contact.
He rejected the opposition’s criticism on the appointment of serving generals as federal relief commissioner and Earthquake Relief and Rehabilitation Authority chairman, saying that both the appointments had been made by him or with his consent. He added that both the organizations were based in the prime minister’s secretariat and their heads reported to him.
He said Relief Commissioner Maj-Gen Farooq Ahmed had been working as the chairman of the prime minister’s inspection team and he had assigned the task of supervising relief activities to him at his own initiative whereas the rehabilitation authority chief had been appointed by the president in consultation with him.
On a question about the government’s agreeing to open the Line of Control at five points, he said Pakistan-India dialogue process had changed the atmosphere to congeniality but there was a need for addressing the core issue of Kashmir to achieve progress in the normalization of relations between the two countries.
“The atmosphere has certainly changed after a few years of talks and progress has been achieved on a number of bilateral issues, which may help to go ahead with the issue of Kashmir to open doors on more bilateral agreements,” he said.
The prime minister said winterized tents were arriving in a few days and they would be supplied to remote areas to save the lives of people living on hilltops and unwilling to come down.
He claimed that life was fast returning to normalcy in the quake-hit areas and described the November 19 donors’ conference as significant in presenting the estimates of damage and cost of relief and reconstruction operations to the donors.
Mr Aziz said to achieve a consensus on the estimates of losses and cost of reconstruction, the government had prepared a report in collaboration with almost all the international donors — including the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank.
He put the total requirement at $5.1 billion, saying $3.6 billion was needed for the reconstruction alone.
The prime minister said a plan would be presented in the donors’ conference to get offers from the donors to construct houses, hospitals and other buildings in the quake-hit areas.
The National Volunteers’ Movement had been launched to harness the national spirit witnessed during the relief activities, he said.
The ruling PML, he said, had planned to provide some residential units in some of the quake-hit areas.
He said Rs6 billion had been collected in the President’s Relief Fund which was being spent on relief activities.
