ISLAMABAD, March 18: Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz has said that an Earthquake Prediction and Probability Analysis Centre will be established in the country. The centre will cater to the needs of South and Central Asia and the Middle East, he said.
The centre would be attached to the National Centre for Physics, Quaid-i-Azam University in Islamabad and would work in collaboration with related foreign institutes of high repute including Abdus Salam Centre for Theoretical Physics in Trieste, Italy, International Institute of Earthquake Prediction Theory and Mathematics Geophysics, UCLA and Russian Academy of Sciences.
Renowned scientists, particularly in the fields of physics, mathematics, geo-physics and statistics would visit the centre for joint research in seismic sciences.
The proposal was made by Dr Ashfaq, special advisor to the prime minister, and was discussed in a meeting attended by experts of the UCLA institute.
The prime minister said that the government was working to strengthen indigenous capacity in all fields related to earthquake, natural and man-made disasters.
Speaking at a seminar on ‘Earthquake 8/10: learning from Pakistan’s experience,” here on Saturday, the Prime Minister said: “Though the predictions may not be 100 per cent correct, the fault lines can be seen and engineering solutions found for medium and low-risk areas. However, no reconstruction will take place in the high-risk zones.”
“We will get experts from around the world, since it has to do a lot with mathematics and physics, it can generate some level of probability to give us a general idea of what might happen,” he said.
Prime Minister Aziz said the government would not allow reconstruction in the earthquake-hit areas identified as high-risk zones.
He said following the seismic surveys conducted by foreign and local experts, the earthquake-hit areas where there was a probability of a disaster hitting again were being divided in high, medium and low-risk zones.
He did not reveal details of the high-risk areas identified in the light of surveys conducted by teams from Norway, Turkey, Japan and China, but said the reports would be made public.
He said the government was setting up a permanent disaster management authority, which would report to him, with a core group of experts to handle any eventuality.
He underlined the need of having a building code that could ensure construction of safe structures able to withstand earthquakes.
He called for setting up of a global disaster management fund by the United Nations to immediately assist countries hit by a natural calamity. Flash appeals to collect funds while people were dying were unacceptable, he said. “The world has to create a fund to respond immediately. Disasters can strike anywhere without warning and the UN must have the ability to act and react instantly,” he remarked.
He said the world body could make appeals at a later stage if additional funds were required.
Referring to the $6.2 billion pledges made at the donors’ conference, he declared that the government would only accept loans on soft terms.
He regretted that the country had an inadequate disaster management system when it was hit by its worst natural calamity, devastating vast areas and rendering over four million people homeless.
“That was the toughest task I ever had to do in my 36 years of working life,” Mr Aziz said.
He said the institutions of Federal Relief Commissioner and the Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority were being merged to effectively handle the task of rehabilitating the millions left without shelter and means of earning.
He expressed his determination to turn the challenge caused by the earthquake into an opportunity for development.
He said the government had prepared a plan to restore the livelihood of survivors and increase capacity of local governments, NGOs and businesses to undertake the reconstruction effort.
