JEDDAH, 17 October 2006 — Azad Kashmir Minister for Food, Cooperatives and Prisons Sardar Abdul Qayyum Niazi on Sunday denied that administrative bottlenecks hampered the distribution of checks to the earthquake victims.
He was reacting to reports that officials in charge of rebuilding the earthquake-hit areas were involved in corruption.
Sardar Niazi, who was in the Kingdom to perform Umrah, told a gathering at an iftar party here the rehabilitation of the quake survivors was progressing smoothly.
The iftar party was organized by the local unit of All-Jammu Kashmir Muslim Conference headed by Abdul Latif Abbasi. The government of Sardar Atiq Khan is doing all it can to rebuild the devastated region, he said.
“The government has built approximately six utility stores in the region to provide grocery items to the people from far-flung areas and it also plans to build two utility stores each at the district level,” the minister said.
Regarding the reconstruction of the houses, he said, “The reconstruction process is a bit difficult as the geographical structure of the area makes it difficult to erect buildings. We are providing people all technical assistance to build three-room houses, including maps and surveyors.”
“We’re going to build a strong, modern Kashmir,” he added.
Referring to donations, Sardar Niazi said, “We still have not yet received the total installments of the donations pledged by the donors. The last installment we will get in June 2007.”
The government is marshalling its resources to better serve the people, and it has built a university in Muzaffarabad, the devastated capital of Pakistani Kashmir, he said, adding that President Pervez Musharraf also waived the loans of the banks and assured his full support to the newly elected government of Prime Minister Sardar Atiq Khan.
Of India’s allegations against Pakistan of cross-border terrorism, the minister rebuffed them and said, “There are no terrorist camps in Kashmir. NGOs were there at the time of the disaster, and had there been any camp they would have found it.”
India is not cooperating with Pakistan in confidence-building measures, he said.
The Earthquake Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Authority (ERRA) has given each family rupees 175,000 to reconstruct their homes. “But it is quite impossible for them to build their homes with such a small sum, so in our next budget, we will ask the government of Azad Kashmir to allocate additional rupees 100,000 to each affected family,” said Deputy Speaker Sardar Farooq Ahmed Tahir.
“The government has also given rupees 3,000 per family for petty expenditure,” he said.
Ghulam Nabi Butt, chairman of the All Jammu Kashmir Community, Sardar Zareen Khan, secretary information of All-Jammu Kashmir Muslim Conference and Sardar Zafar Ullah Abbasi, president of Muslim Conference Muzzafarabad, also spoke at the function conducted by Abdul Latif Abbasi.
