ISLAMABAD, March 17: President Gen Pervez Musharraf said here on Friday that he would request donor countries to convert the loans pledged or given in the wake of last year’s earthquake catastrophe into financial assistance.
Speaking at a seminar on ‘Earthquake 8/10: Learning from Pakistan’s experience’ he reiterated his pledge that the money would be spent transparently and efficiently for the wellbeing of quake survivors. “Every single penny will be spent on reconstruction and rehabilitation,” he said.
He indicated that the Federal Relief Commission (FRC) would be merged with the Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority (Erra).
“An organizational modification is required now when the focus is shifting to the challenging phase of reconstruction,” he said after inaugurating the seminar organized jointly by the Institute of Strategic Studies and the FRC.
The president said that maximum number of destroyed houses would be rebuilt by next winter and half a million quake-resistant houses would be built in two years.
He set a two-year target for reconstruction of education and health infrastructure and government buildings in quake-hit areas of Azad Kashmir and the NWFP.
He said quake survivors were getting financial assistance and expert guidance on building quake-resistant houses.
“Education edifice, health infrastructure and government buildings will not just be reinstated—-they would be reconstructed on modern lines under a need-based strategy. This way we will be able to rebuild lives of survivors and convert the challenge into an opportunity for their wellbeing,” the president said.
He described as baseless the criticism that provision of relief was very slow. “About 50,000 troops of Pakistan army were moved quickly in the aftermath of the catastrophe and they worked round-the-clock to restore communication infrastructure in the difficult mountainous region,” he said, adding that response to the biggest natural disaster was fast and effective as it efficiently combined efforts of government agencies, the Pakistan army and national and international NGOs in implementation of rescue and relief strategy. He said that the Pakistan army was spread out to 80 key points in the quake-hit zone, its engineers opened vital routes including the one from Abbotabad to Muzaffarabad, its medical teams and relief supplies reached out to people in the remotest areas.”
He pointed out that a scenario of people freezing to death in the winter was created by certain elements, but through organized efforts it was ensured that this did not happen.
