RAWALPINDI, Nov 20: Punjab Governor Lt-Gen (retired) Khalid Maqbool on Sunday said the government and people of Punjab would continue to extend every possible help to the earthquake-stricken people of the NWFP and Azad Kashmir.

He stated this while speaking to 36 teams of skilled labour volunteers from six districts of Punjab — Lahore, Multan, Sialkot, Rawalpindi, Faisalabad and Gujranwala — who left here on Sunday to participate in the relief and reconstruction activities in quake-hit areas.

The skilled labourers equipped with required tools included masons, carpenters, steel fixers and electricians. They would participate in the relief and reconstruction work in Muzaffarabad, Bagh, Rawalakot and Balakot along with Army engineers and construction workers.

Special Assistant to Prime Minister and National Volunteer Movement Chairman Mohammad Ali Durrani, Provincial Minister for Law, Local Government and Rural Development Raja Mohammad Basharat and District Nazim Rawalpindi Javed Ikhlas also spoke on the occasion.

The governor commended the leadership of President Gen Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and said the international community and donor agencies had expressed their complete confidence in the Pakistani leadership with regard to the ongoing relief and rescue operations of the government.

This is why the international community announced pledges worth $5.9 billion for reconstruction in affected areas of the NWFP and Azad Kashmir, he said.

He said the Punjab government had provided two million quilts, 0.15 million tents and medicines to 0.9 million people, besides providing food to 7.8 million survivors.

He added that so far, 8,500 truck loads of relief goods had been dispatched to the affected areas.— APP