GILGIT, Dec 23: A tribal jirga and political parties of Diamer district decided on Sunday to allocate over 670 acres of land at Gunloodass for the permanent rehabilitation of the quake victims belonging to Tatu, Ferry Meadows, Muthait and Raikot areas.
SEISMIC ACTIVITY: A senior geologist of the Geological Survey of Pakistan, Kanwar Sabir Ali Khan, told newsmen at a news briefing the other day that seismic activity in the district would continue for another month, as two continental plates were in the process of continuous collision.
Mr Khan said the region was unstable as for as quakes incidents were concerned, but ruled out any volcanic eruption and a popular theory of the presence of huge sulphur deposits and their chemical reaction at the seismic zones of Astore and Tatu.
Mr Khan was of the opinion that the recent quakes were not having strong intensity to cause any colossal damage as their intensity was dying down. The strongest shock in the region had already passed without causing any catastrophe, which had a magnitude of 5.7 at the Richter scale, he added.
He said the ongoing seismic activity would head for Afghanistan after passing through Swat in the NWFP.
Speaking on the occasion, Northern Areas Force Commander Maj-Gen Nadeem Ahmed said that so far they had managed to dispatch over 3,000 tents, woolies, medicines to the quake-hit areas, but the victims needed more relief goods.
In reply to a question, he said the relief operation of the army helicopters had costed Rs24 million, which would be met from the defence budget, and would not be deducted from the relief fund or development funds of Northern Areas.
NOTIFICATION: The Kashmir Affairs and Northern Areas Affairs division issued a notification on Tuesday for the induction of the deputy speaker into the Northern Areas Legislative Council (NALC), along with the appointment of a women adviser to the Northern Areas chief executive.
The chief executive will directly the appoint women adviser using his discretionary powers while the NALC members will elect the deputy speaker through a vote, a notification reads. But it does not notify the name of the women adviser specifically, as there are five women councillors in the cabinet.
Though the NALC cabinet was formed some three years ago and the next election would be held in 2004, inductions were still continued, the sources said.
#Border:# The border at Sost would be closed down on Wednesday for trade and tourism activities as per decision of the Pakistan- China border protocol, sources said.