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| October 09, 2006 | Monday | Ramazan 15, 1427 |
It’s mere rhetoric, say frustrated survivors
MUZAFFARABAD, Oct 8: Earthquake survivors on Sunday criticised President Gen Pervez Musharraf’s speech which he delivered at the ceremonial service to mark the first anniversary of the region’s worst-ever natural disaster and said it contained nothing new.
“He (president) said things which we have been hearing for the past couple of weeks. There was nothing new,” commented Abdul Khaliq, as he heard the speech telecast live by the state-run Pakistan Television.
“We are yet to see anything concrete being done to helps us reconstruct our houses,” said Khaliq, running a small grocery shop in Muzaffarabad.
A widow from the capital’s hardest-hit area of Khwaja Mohalla said such speeches meant nothing as long as she remained without a shelter.
“I am sharing accommodation with my brother’s family in a single room for the past year. And the authorities have not been able to provide me shelter,” said Tahira Bashir, whose husband, a baker, was killed when their house was flattened by the quake.
“They say we have done this, we have done that. They should come here and see how I am living with my teenaged daughter,” she said in a choked voice.
Ms Bashir does not qualify to receive livelihood cash grant of Rs3,000 per month because she has only one child while the criteria for such grants requires the beneficiary to be the parent of five or more.
“I have no source of income. Gen Musharraf should think about us and do something for people like me.”
A former Azad Kashmir minister also expressed disappointment over the visit.
“While Gen Musharraf has said nothing new, (AJK Prime Minister) Sardar Attique Ahmed, instead of raising the genuine problems of survivors, broke all records of flattery,” said Khawaja Farooq Ahmed of People’s Muslim League.
He criticised the publication of huge advertisements on behalf of government authorities in newspapers boasting of ‘fake achievements over the past one year’.
“Survivors here are still homeless and uncertain about their future but the authorities are claiming that they have done a lot,” said Mr Ahmed.
Another survivor, Nazir Kiani, said he had expected the president to say something about compensation for urban property but there was no such thing ‘except rhetoric’.
“People in this city are still facing immense problems. They have released the second installment of compensation money only three days ago. But the land use plan is yet to be announced. So how can we start reconstructions in the current situation,” asked Mr Kiani whose two-storied house was leveled by last year’s earthquake.
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