LAHORE, Oct 21: The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan has stressed the need for involving the civil administration and local population in the rehabilitation work of the quake-hit areas.

Welcoming the announcement that the army coordinating relief efforts in Muzaffarabad had decided to involve the civil administration in identifying victims and overall logistics, HRCP secretary-general Iqbal Haider said a team led by Asma Jehangir returning from the area a day earlier had received reports of acute shortage of shelter.

The team had observed that tents in some cases were stored in government warehouses, but were not being distributed. According to the authorities, these were kept for future emergencies. At the same time, the relief delivery was almost absent in the cities.

The team also observed that the relief was in many cases not reaching the most vulnerable, including women, children and the injured, owing to the mechanism widely used for handing it out from trucks or collection centres. The fittest were receiving the most while many others in desperate need were neglected.

He said the commission had also received complaints that people in the affected areas were not being allowed to make telephone calls freely to the outside areas in an apparent effort to suppress information.

He said the HRCP was also disturbed over the increasing reports of attempts at trafficking of women and children. Complaints of harassment of women were also being received but could not be confirmed. The HRCP believed that the government was obliged to monitor the situation, and the civil society should coordinate the efforts with the authorities.

He regretted that dismantling of the civil administration had left a huge vacuum in the governance system which was now being missed during the crisis. At the same time, most areas affected by the quake had a weak civil society presence, thereby a sustained support to the people would not be easy.