ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani on Monday again appealed for international help for rehabilitating displaced people and start rebuilding process in areas hit by terrorism.

Mr Gilani, chairing a meeting on damage and needs assessment in the NWFP and Fata at the Prime Minister’s Secretariat, said that donors’ rebuilding effort would be seen in a positive light by Pakistanis.

Although donors had pledged $5.2 billion for the displaced at the Tokyo conference in April, the government has received almost nothing at all.

The meeting was informed that a ‘Strategic Oversight Council’ had been set up under the chairmanship of the prime minister with all stakeholders, including the NWFP governor and the chief minister and the DG Special Support Group, to guide the PCNA to act as the final decision-making body.

The meeting was attended by a number of diplomats from donor and friendly countries, including High Commissioners of Australia and Canada, Denmark’s deputy head of mission, ambassadors of France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Sweden, Turkey, European Union, the UN resident coordinator, heads of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), World Bank, Switzerland’s SDC, Germany’s GTZ, UK’s DFID, Japan’s JICA and USAID. Federal Minister for Finance Shaukat Tarin, briefing the meeting, said that the preliminary assessment report was compiled by the provincial government’s Special Support Group with the help of the World Bank and ADB.

The Director-General of the Provincial Reconstruction, Rehabilitation and Settlement Authority, Shakeel Qadir, gave a presentation on immediate restoration and medium-term reconstruction. The meeting was informed that the ADB and World Bank had conducted a preliminary damage assessment in Buner, Lower and Upper Dir, Shangla and Swat (in the NWFP) and Bajaur and Mohmand, in Fata.