February 22, 2007	Thursday	Safar 4, 1428

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ISLAMABAD, Feb 21: Minister Incharge of the Prime Minister’s Secretariat Sher Afgan on Wednesday informed the National Assembly that Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority (Erra) had purchased 65 vehicles worth over Rs90.52 million which were under use of its senior officials and other staff members.

The information was placed before the House by the minister in a written reply to a question of MNA Abdul Ghani Talpur of the People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPP).

The minister further informed the lower house that Erra had so far spent Rs219.981 million on the administrative expenditures, including salaries and allowances of employees up to January 31, 2007 since its establishment on October 24, 2005.

Giving details, the minister said, there were nine staff cars, 11 operational vehicles, 20 field vehicles, nine for general duty and 16 were “additional operational pool vehicles.” He said Erra had two Toyota Altis (Model 2006) cars, four Toyota Corolla GLI (2006) cars, one Honda City (2006) car, 28 Suzuki Cultus (2006) cars, two Toyota Parado (2006) jeeps, 18 Double Cabin (2006) vehicles, two Suzuki Potohar (2006) jeeps, two Suzuki vans (2006), one Suzuki Mehran (2006) cars, two Hino (2006) coasters, one Hiace (2006) van and two motorcycles (2006).

The minister said Erra Chairman Saleem Altaf and deputy chairman Gen Nadeem Ahmed were using Toyota Altis cars and the value of each car was Rs1.243 million. He said four Toyota Corolla cars, each valuing Rs0.988 million were in use of Brig Sher Afgan Niazi (director-general Monitoring and Evaluation), Ch Liaqat Ali (Finance), Akhtar Ahsan (DG Board and Council) and Seerat Asghar (DG Planning). He said the only Honda City car was in the use of DG Executive Wing Brig Waqar Iqbal Raja while Brig Akhtar Javed Warraich (DG Transitional Relief Cell) and Col Arshad Mehboob (DDG Management Information System) were using Suzuki Cultus cars.

The minister said that field vehicles were used by the Monitoring and Evaluation Wing to monitor and evaluate work progress in the earthquake-affected areas and ensure the specification-cum- quality of reconstruction work. The field vehicles were kept in field offices of Erra in nine districts. Out of these vehicles, he said, six vehicles were kept at Erra Islamabad for conveyance of donors, sponsors and other officers visiting the earthquake hit areas.

He said nine vehicles placed on general duty were used by Erra officials “for the purpose of routine official/admin duties which mainly included drawing/depositing of cash in bank, admin arrangements of different meetings/conferences and events and pick and drop facility to Erra officials.

He said 16 “additional operational pool vehicles” had been provided to different wings for their routine official/admin arrangements and for official visitors visiting the earthquake- hit areas.

In response to a question, the minister told the house that there were 65 Erra officials, including 23 army men, drawing salaries of more than Rs20,000 per month. These 65 Erra officials are drawing Rs2.762 million per month as salaries.

In a written reply to another question of Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) MNA Inayat Begum, Minister Incharge of the Prime Minister’s Secretariat Dr Sher Afgan said that restoration work in the earthquake-affected areas had almost been completed. He said the life in general had been restored to normal. He said all offices, banks, markets and roads were open and schools, offices, hospitals and government offices were functioning in temporary shelters. He claimed that out of 3.5 million earthquake-affected persons, only 33,000 were living in winterised camps in the NWFP and Azad Kashmir.