MUZAFFARABAD, June 13: Most visitors to the earthquake-devastated areas in Azad Kashmir come away with a distinct impression that while the victims are showing great courage and resilience in rebuilding their shattered lives and broken houses brick by brick, the government is only offering a reluctant helping hand. The victims of the Oct 8 earthquake cannot help feeling alarmed at the waning media spotlight on their issues -– such stories have already been relegated to the inside pages of newspapers -– and the growing unwillingness of indifferent government officials to leave their ivory towers in Islamabad for the discomfort of the calamity-hit areas where, eight months on, life is still far from normal.

“I will give you just one example to illustrate my point that the government has no idea how to go about reconstructing the houses destroyed by the earthquake,” says 60-year-old Mohammad Siddiq between sips of tea. The deadly tremors flattened his multi-storey, 21-room house that was perched precariously on a hill in Karthama village, deep in Azad Kashmir’s Jhelum Valley.

“The government insists that the second tranche of Rs75,000 will be given to the victims only if they reconstruct their homes in accordance with some highly complicated building guidelines. By the government’s own admission, hundreds of thousands of houses need to be reconstructed. In far-flung areas like Karthama, finding masons, also affected by the earthquake, is a tall order.

“How can we find masons who are literate enough to read and understand the building guidelines provided by the government?” he argues.

Sitting in a grove of tall and shady chinar trees (Prunus orientalis), villagers from neighbouring hamlets nod their heads in agreement. “The Islamabad-based officials also do not know that labour costs have gone up three times since the earthquake,” says one of them, Mohammad Yunus, spelling out the factors responsible for such a phenomenal rise in labour costs.

“One, there is a huge demand for skilled workers who can reconstruct houses. Second, the demand has also pushed up prices of building materials. Third, non-government organisations, especially those funded from abroad, have added to labour costs by offering more money to workers than they were getting previously.

“Fourth, since most workers have plenty of food stored in their houses, thanks to the massive relief operation largely undertaken by the private sector, masons are not going to get back to work any time soon. Fifth, workers are living in tents and have to go back home every day. Previously, they worked on one building project for days and would go home only after finishing the project.”

A drive through Jhelum Valley makes it clear that the victims eagerly want their lives to return to normality. And what could be more normal than taking part in the electioneering process for the July 11 elections of the Legislative Assembly? Their zest for politics has remained undiminished in spite of the fact that debris from collapsed houses still lines the potholed main road along the Jhelum River.

“Actually, the earthquake made all of us become conscious of politics. It mobilised us and it also unified us. As a result, people are determined to ensure that the government in Azad Kashmir has enough resources at hand to help us get through the reconstruction phase as early as possible,” argues Tasweer Hussain Naqvi of Kocha-i-Saidan, in Jhelum Valley.

He and his like-minded friends spend all their waking hours canvassing for their candidates. “You know, this country needs Bhutto’s policies,” he says with the contagious gusto of a political activist.

But politics is not uppermost in Siddiq’s priorities. “I am chairman of the Randwa (Widowers’) Association of Karthama and ours is the only association in the world that is determined to reduce its membership. But this is only possible if we are allowed to get on with reconstruction of our houses as early as possible,” he says, amusement glimmering in his eyes.

While the authorities are often criticised for showing little care for the earthquake victims, the chairman of the State Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Agency (Seera) in Azad Kashmir, Mir Bashir, feels certain that the government is doing its utmost. “The government has spent Rs4.7 billion on reconstruction of 68,000 houses between May 4 and June 6. At least 23 Seera teams are working in the field.”

Mr Bashir says, with reason, that he cannot stress enough the importance of reconstruction of earthquake-resistant houses in Azad Kashmir. Echoing the sentiments of villages, he says: “And I also know that there is a shortage of competent masons in the earthquake-devastated areas. But we are imparting training to people,” he claims.

However, his assertion is not backed by high-ranking officials tasked to disburse reconstruction funds in Azad Kashmir after ensuring that official building plans are strictly adhered to. One such official, who declined to be named, says no training is being imparted to people and nobody in Seera knows how the reconstruction funds will be distributed.

And since Azad Kashmir has a peculiar baggage of history, negligence by government officials is often ascribed to what some people call a policy of discrimination. Such sentiments find expression in Mohammad Ajaz’s fulminations against Islamabad.

Pointing to the newly built houses in the Titiwal sector of the Indian-held Kashmir across the Neelum River, and displaying obvious signs of frustration, he says: “Can you see those houses in the part of Kashmir occupied by India? They were also destroyed like the ones destroyed in Neelum Valley. While our villagers got a raw deal from servicemen distributing relief funds shortly after the earthquake, the Indian army lost no time in reconstructing the houses destroyed in the earthquake. But perhaps even harbouring such thoughts is a treasonable offence in Azad Kashmir,” he says.