PESHAWAR, March 9: Pakistan Red Crescent Society (PRCS) NWFP chapter is in a fix after its national headquarters in Islamabad showed inability to finance disaster management cells and district branches in the province after 2009, reliable sources confided to Dawn.

The sources said that if the International Federation of Red Cross (IFRC) and Red Crescent Societies and other donors stopped funding then the district branches would have to opt for generating their own funds to carry on activities in their respective areas.

The IFRC would continue financing by 2009 end.The IFRC assists the national societies in four areas: promoting humanitarian principles, disaster response, disaster preparedness, and healthcare in the community across the globe.

The PRCS Islamabad had asked its Peshawar office to continue funding the society’s district level branches and disaster management cells in the frontier province even if the donors stopped financing.

On the other hand, the sources said, the PRCS office in Peshawar was in no mood to take responsibility of providing funds to its district level branches in the province.

The sources said that future of the district branches and disaster management cells hanged in the balance after headquarters in the federal capital and provincial office expressed inability to finance these offices if IFRC and other donors stopped financial support.

PRCS, Peshawar office, had informed its national headquarters that under the constitution provincial offices were not supposed to finance district branches on permanent basis and have to locally generate funds to bear their expenditures.

The Red Crescent Society has so far established its offices in 18 out of 24 districts of the NWFP. However, only five branches - Mansehra, Swat, Batagram, Haripur and Bannu - were fully operational. The sources said that neither the provincial office nor the district level offices of the society made serious efforts for generating funds on their own.

The sources said that on the one hand the provincial office had shown inability to assist district branches in the province while on the other it was likely to start construction of a multi-storey commercial centre in Peshawar. Estimated cost of the project is about Rs15 million.

Moreover, in the rest of the branches the society has yet to appoint secretaries, disaster management officers and other required staff on permanent basis, the sources maintained adding that shortage of funds could jeopardise future of offices in three disaster-prone districts of the province - Chitral, Lower and Upper Dir.

The society has planned to also establish its branches in Chitral during this year while two more offices would be set up in Upper and Lower Dir districts next year where natural calamities play havoc every year.