LAHORE, June 17: The high-profile Disaster Relief Management Society formed under former chief secretary Hafeez Akhtar Randhawa has managed to provide a monthly stipend to only 2,000 quake-hit families as against the commitments of 5,000 families by leading industrialists, politicians and nazims, official sources informed Dawn on Saturday.

The DRMS had been able to get donations from less than half of those who made commitments around six months ago. It was providing the monthly stipend of Rs6,000 to only 2,000 families for the past three months, sources said.

They confirmed that donations were committed for the adoption of 5,000 families affected by the earthquake in Azad Kashmir and the NWFP on Oct 8, 2005, and said the DRMS authorities were now exerting pressure on those who had failed to honour their commitments so far.

They did not reveal the names of those not making the payments, saying the government was still asking them to adopt the families. “Their names will ultimately be released to the press exposure,” they said.

They refused to admit that the DRMS had failed to deliver and said its functioning revolved around donations announced by those considered closer to the government. “It looks that many had half-heartedly made the commitments to appease the chief minister. That’s why they are not making the payments now,” sources said.

The DRMS was constituted on Nov 23 last to run the Chief Minister’s Support-A-Family Programme based on donations from Pakistanis within and outside the country.

Mr Randhawa was made its chief executive with a huge monthly salary and other fringe benefits which many a senior government official envied. He was earlier appointed the Bank of Punjab chairman upon his retirement from service but was removed by Chief Minister Pervaiz Elahi after his row with the new chief secretary, Kamran Rasool.

PML President Chaudhry Shujaat Husain is the DRMS chairman and the chief minister its patron.

The Support-A-Family Programme was launched through a telethon from Lahore and Dubai on Dec 4 last year and after its conclusion it was claimed that the well-off expatriates, leading industrialists, politicians and nazims had adopted 4,000 families.

While announcing the programme in November last year, the chief minister had said initially 100,000 earthquake-hit families in Azad Kashmir and the NWFP would be given a monthly stipend of Rs6,000 at least for one year. The recipients would include widows, orphans and those who lost their breadwinners, a majority of family members and limbs.

Speaking at the telethon, Mr Randhawa had said the families would start getting the stipend after Eidul Azha and Chief Secretary Salman Siddique had announced that Rs7.2 billion would be given to them.