Musharraf rejects Oxfam’s concern: $800m more needed for reconstruction
By Our Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD, Oct 5: President Pervez Musharraf has lashed out at Oxfam for its statement that over 1.8 million survivors of last year’s devastating earthquake will spend another harsh winter in tents and makeshift homes.
“These doomsday predictors have said that 1.8 million people would be in tents this winter. It is unfortunate. How anyone can say this,” the president said at the first annual conference of the Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority on Thursday.
He also denied allegations of corruption by officials which, Oxfam had said, was compounding the miseries of survivors. But he admitted that some exploiters might be doing wrong at some level and said that the ‘immoral characters should be ignored.’
An exemplary system, he said, had been put in place that ensured transparency. Things, he added, were moving in the right direction.
Disputing the figures released by Oxfam, he said that 95 per cent of the displaced people had returned to homes and some 30,000 remained in tents.
President Musharraf appealed to the international community and philanthropists for an additional $800 million to foot the bill for increased cost of reconstruction of the quake-hit areas.
Eighty percent of the reconstruction work would be completed by 2,009.
It is estimated that the reconstruction will now cost $4.3 billion instead of earlier calculations of $3.7 billion made at the time of donors conference held last year after the earthquake that killed at least 73,000 people and left three million homeless in Azad Kashmir and the North West Frontier Province.
The international community had pledged $6.5 billion at the conference, part of which was to go to relief and rehabilitation. Additionally, Rs12 billion were received as private donations.
The president told an audience that included diplomats and representatives from multilateral lenders and aid agencies that the cost over-run had come from an increase in the number of houses to be reconstructed.
There has been an increase of 200,000 housing units to be reconstructed. Previous surveys had put the number of houses needing reconstruction at 400,000.
Joint assessments by Erra and international agencies, President Musharraf said, had put the total damage at $5.2 billion.
“Only with this additional $800 million can we meet the challenge of reconstructing health and education institutions and additional houses,” he said.
He promised to the donors that reconstruction of housing units would be completed by December 2,008 and their donations would be used judiciously and in a transparent manner.
The president said that the government would not fail the nation and survivors of the massive quake and vowed to provide better living standards to the survivors.
Responding to the ongoing debate about the total time to accomplish the reconstruction task, the president vowed that 80 per cent of the works would be completed by 2,009.
Those talking of longer periods, he said, were portraying negativism and denying Erra its credit. “If you are talking about constructing a $50 million university then it would certainly take longer,” he added.
