February 04, 2007	Sunday	Muharram 15, 1428

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MUZAFFARABAD, Feb 3: Representatives of different political parties, lawyers, traders and student organizations on Friday demanded of the Azad Kashmir government to immediately initiate reconstruction work in Muzaffarabad.

They included three sitting Legislative Assembly members, three former ministers and one former AJK council member from ruling Muslim Conference and its breakaway ‘Haqiqi’ group, opposition People’s Muslim League, People’s Party AJK, Jamaat-i-Islami, Liberation League, Jammu Kashmir People’s Party and the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front.

They said that the delay was creating misgivings and suspicion among the people about government intentions.

Praising the resilience of survivors, they said that instead respecting it, some quarters were bent upon further testing their patience.

The compensation offered in urban areas was too little and it should be enhanced, they said. The government should also announce a package for traders and waive government servants’ loans, they said.

Pledging to resist any bid to disturb the historical eminence of Muzaffarabad, they warned government officials allegedly involved in ‘intrigues’ to desist from floating suggestions to relocate offices or extend the city limits.

They claimed that they had no political agenda and they only wanted to ensure the resolution of problems faced by the quake survivors, adding that they wanted to make sur that the government abandoned all ideas that were contributing to public frustration.

“Our struggle is not aimed at dislodging the government. All we want is an end to the injustices meted out to quake survivors,” they said.

“People are literally at the end of their tether particularly when they see that despite the passage of 16 months after the quake there has not been any practical step on the part of authorities regarding the commencement of reconstruction phase,” they said.

The leaders asked Prime Minister Sardar Attique Ahmed Khan to make a clear policy statement on relocation of the secretariat and other issues worrying the quake survivors before Feb 15 otherwise they would hold another round of the APC to decide future strategy.