KARACHI, Oct 8: Speakers at a seminar on the plight of Oct 8 earthquake survivors strongly criticised the government for its indifferent attitude and flowed policies leading to the situation where about 1.8 million people are awaiting proper rehabilitation even one year after the quake.

Participants of the seminar on “One year of the rehabilitation of the earthquake victims”, organised by the Jamaat-i-Islami at its office, Idara Noor-i-Haq, here on Sunday, demanded a thorough probe into the gross irregularities in the utilisation of the quake relief funds.

They pointing out that contrary to the claims by the government that 90 per cent rehabilitation work had been completed, about 1.8 million people were still living in miserable conditions in the tents.

Naib Amir of the JI Prof Ghafoor Ahmad, in his presidential remarks, observed that the quake survivors had first fallen victim to the natural calamity and then the corruption on the part of the government.

Deploring the government’s lethargic attitude, he cited the example of Balakot, saying that the quake had flattened all structures and devastated the entire infrastructure but in the whole year, neither its new site could be determined, nor were the survivors being allowed to rebuild their houses on their own.

Dr Shahid Hasan Siddiqui said that while Iran contributed the biggest amount of $100,000 towards the quake relief work, followed by the UAE, Turkey and Saudi Arabia, many other Muslim countries did not come forward owing to the Pakistan rulers’ opting for a U-turn in the country’s policies.

Dr Mairajul Huda Siddiqui said that the year of rehabilitation work had exposed many faces. He observed that all credit of the rehabilitation work should go to people and not the rulers.

He said the rulers’ claim of having rehabilitated 80-90 per cent of survivors was false.

Dr Misbahul Aziz also spoke.