MUZAFFARABAD: People in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) on Friday observed the 16th anniversary of the devastating 2005 earthquake in remembrance of their near and dear ones martyred during the region’s worst ever natural disaster.

The main ceremony of the day, as usual, was held in K.H. Khurshid Stadium which had turned into a makeshift camp for hundreds of homeless families for a long time after the quake and where a monument to the martyrs had been built.

AJK Prime Minister Sardar Abdul Qayyum Niazi, who was accompanied by Minister for Local Government and Rural Development Khawaja Farooq Ahmed, Minister for Planning and Development Chaudhry Mohammad Rasheed, secretary civil defence and disaster management Raja Amjid Pervaiz Ali Khan and police chief Dr Sohail Habib Tajik, laid a wreath at the moment after the audience observed one-minute silence to pay homage to the victims of the catastrophic temblor.

Paying tributes to the martyrs, Mr Niazi commended the help in cash and kind by the government, people and institutions of Pakistan as well as the international community in relief, rehabilitation and reconstruction related activities in the aftermath of the quake.

According to the AJK government’s earthquake rehabilitation and reconstruction authority (Serra), 7608 projects had been envisaged after the quake through three modes of execution – sponsors, donors and government of Pakistan (GoP) funding.

While all sponsor and donor funded projects had been successfully completed, 1,730 projects under the GoP funding – 1112 in education sector alone - were in a limbo since 2010 due to irregular or limited cash flow from Islamabad.

Of these 1,730 projects, 919 were ongoing and needed Rs 12.61 billion for completion and the remaining 811 at an estimated cost of over Rs15 billion were yet to be started.

As a result, only in the education sector, more than three million students were acquiring education in impoverished structures in scorching summer heat and biting winter cold as 515 school buildings were at different stages of construction and 597 could not be tendered out due to unavailability of funds.

In a reference to it, Mr Niazi vowed that his government would complete all projects on a priority basis fromPrime Minister Imran Khan’s special package of Rs500 billion for AJK.

However, while the held-up public sector projects were an issue of concern for both the AJK government and beneficiary population alike, allottees in two satellite towns on the outskirts of Muzaffarabad were also upset at the alleged incompetence of AJK authorities in facilitating early commencement of the construction of houses.

The land for these satellite towns was purchased and developed for the victims of the earthquake but ironically most of the genuinely affected survivors were unable to secure a homesite for themselves because the previous PML-N government had declared both affected and unaffected residents eligible for the allotment.

Published in Dawn, October 9th, 2021