LAHORE, Oct 8: The military junta is responsible for all the miseries and mess persisting in the quake-hit areas even after a year of the natural calamity, MMA president and JI amir Qazi Husain Ahmad said here on Sunday.

Speaking at a press conference, Qazi called on the government to present report about the receipts in president’s earthquake relief fund before the Public Accounts Committee of the National Assembly.

He said the elected representatives must know the reality of various disbursements made out from the fund because “neat and clean image of the armed forces is a thing of the past, and it was no more an exception to the rule of corruption prevalent in the society.”

Flanked by Al-Khidmat Foundation chairman Liaqat Baloch and Secretary-General Syed Ehsanullah Waqas, JI chief claimed that his party’s volunteers carried out relief operations in the inaccessible parts of quake-hit areas where the government teams failed to reach despite having every technical support and help.

He deplored, what he called, lack of transparency and ill planning on the part of government in rehabilitation process in the quake-hit areas. People had been protesting in the federal capital, castigating ineptness of the government to redress their grievances, but to no avail, he said.

The government’s tall claims of relocating Balakot and “reconstructing every demolished house” had still not been materialised, he said. Instead, other civil society institutions played much more vital role in rehabilitating people, he added.

He lauded the Pakistan Engineers’ Forum and Pakistan Islamic Medical Association (PIMA) for extending specialised help and cooperation to JI volunteers in the quake-hit areas. When many local and foreign NGOs had left the affected areas, Al-Khidmat field hospitals and schools were still operational in the affected areas, he pointed out.

He said the JI was observing Oct 8 as “Sympathy Day” to express solidarity with the affected people because they were still in need of great help.

Later, Liaqat Baloch, in a detailed report about the relief and rehabilitation operation conducted by the foundation during the last year, told media that it also established two orphanage houses for girls and boys in Islamabad and Attock.

Alleging lack of transparency in the operations of the Earthquake Relief and Rehabilitation Authority (ERRA), Mr. Baloch demanded appointment of “neat and clean” people in the body, saying “confidence of the people and donors was running low and could not be restored in this institution with the present set-up.”

He alleged the government had been eulogising the “services” of fake NGOs and awarding them medals against the merit. The ERRA, he said, should have presented its report before the elected representatives before year end, but nothing of the sort has happened because it was only answerable to Gen Musharraf.