June 30, 2008	Monday	Jamadi-us-Sani 25, 1429

MUZAFFARABAD, June 29: A civic body head on Sunday called upon Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani to facilitate the signing of commercial contract between the Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority (Erra) and the Chinese construction companies so as to pave way for early initiation of Rs21.356 billion Muzaffarabad City Development Project (MCDP).

“With every passing day, this town is inching towards more dangers and it is very unfortunate that the agreement to initiate reconstruction work here has been mired for want of time and attention towards it,” Development Authority Muzaffarabad (DAM) chairman Zahid Amin said at a press conference.

Mr Amin alleged that an influential lobby in Islamabad did not want the launch of the reconstruction work through the Chinese preferential buyers’ credit of $300 million.

He said he had no doubt about the fact that only the Chinese companies could successfully undertake this task because they possessed the required skill, equipment and expertise, whereas the line departments had to facilitate them in this regard.

Declining to divulge any name, he declared that “after July 10 he will come out in the public to expose the persons who did not want the Chinese to undertake this project.”

Mr Amin claimed that as long as President Pervez Musharraf wielded power, decisions on reconstruction-related matters were taken with great interest and agility in Islamabad “but that ceased to exist after the caretakers were installed.”

“The people of Muzaffarabad have already shown exemplary patience. The new government must realise the fact that after its installation they are anxiously waiting for the commencement of the long pledged project,” he said.

Mr Amin also clarified, what he said, wrong perception in the public that the AJK government was responsible for the delay in implementation of the master plan prepared by the Japan International Cooperation Agency.

“People should know that at the moment it’s not the AJK government but the federal government and precisely the Erra where this matter is bogged down,” he said.

Rather, AJK Premier Sardar Attique Ahmed Khan had recently told the relevant quarters in Islamabad without mincing words that he could not own the lapses on the part of others, he said.

Mr Amin said he had also asked the People’s Party AJK president Chaudhry Abdul Majeed to use his offices to convince his party’s government in Islamabad not to delay this vital project.

The DAM chairman told journalists that a team of Japanese experts had conducted field visits and surveys of water channels and other hazardous areas in Muzaffarabad over the past three days.

The team, he said, had prepared a quick report, suggesting engineering solutions and other measures, which would be submitted to the government on Monday.

According to the master plan, around 4,000 families living along the water channels, mountain edges, landslide-prone and other hazardous areas have to be evacuated to the proposed satellite towns over the next five years.

Mr Amin claimed that DAM had almost completed its working in this regard but the implementation was linked to the execution of the MCDP.

He recalled that the Chinese companies had mobilised their advance teams to Muzaffarabad almost nine months ago for survey and other allied matters, and had they been given a go-ahead by then, at least some targets would have been almost accomplished by now.