Shaukat unveils 12-point plan for quake victims

Expressing the commitment of the government to turn the great devastation of earthquake into an opportunity for development, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz on Monday announced A 12-point development strategy plan to involve all agencies in the relief, recovery and reconstruction process in the affected areas.
"The entire recovery and rehabilitation operation could take five to ten years requiring $5 billion," he said while addressing the special session of the Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) Council at Prime Minister’s Secretariat here on Monday.
President AJK Sardar Muhammad Anwar Khan and Prime Minter Sardar Sikandar Hayat Khan were also present on the occasion. The council in its session reviewed the relief and rescue operations in AJK and discussed various suggestions to streamline and coordinate these efforts to further speed up such activities.
Addressing the council, the prime minister said about 40,000 lives have been lost so far with many others missing. The exact number of victims will take time to be known. Over 3 million people have lost their homes and livelihood.
He said nevertheless this catastrophe has galvanised the nation in a spirit of common humanity to provide succour to their fellow citizens in their hour of need. "They have responded as one people with an immense, spontaneous outpouring compassion and generosity on a scale never witnessed before," he added.
Outlining the 12-point strategy for development of the earthquake-hit areas for those involved in relief, recovery and reconstruction phases, the prime minister said first we must move survivors from rubbles to tents and decent transitional shelters as quickly as possible, ultimately moving towards construction of model cities for permanent settlement of homeless people while accounting for concerns regarding the "titling" issue.
Second, identify overlaps and gaps in relief in the impacted areas, regulate private, foreign and public sector relief goods and services and fill gaps that exist in the distribution of goods. Third, to gear up medical and trauma treatment for the injured.
Fourth, chalk out a detailed plan for permanent settlement of orphan boys and girls including their education. Fifth, arrange for transitional schools, hospitals, other public offices to restore the government structure.
Sixth, prepare reconstruction plan for the impacted areas including full restoration of infrastructure, setting priorities, coordinating support at the ground level and implementation of the plan in an accountable and transparent manner with participation from the people and their elected representatives.
Seventh, prepare "Transitioning from Tents to Communities Plan" entailing damage assessment, permanent shelter and housing programmes, credit and other livelihood programmes, and funding for cash-for-work programmes to help speed the move from tents to more permanent communities.
Eighth, plan to restore the livelihood of survivors; to finance new economic activities to raise family incomes above their pre-earthquake levels; and to increase the capacity of local governments, nongovernmental organisations and businesses to undertake reconstruction effort.
Nine, jobs for local people in the reconstruction will require large vocational training programmes as thousands of masons, woodworkers, supervisors and labourers are needed.
Ten, estimate financial resource requirements and identify gaps while devising a reporting system to ensure that donations are being used appropriately and a unified scorecard to show what we have achieved and what remains to be done.
Eleven, to develop a joint action plan detailing precisely who will do what, where and when, to avoid duplication of effort, ensuring efficient use of resources and leaving no person or community behind.
Twelfth, prepare model action plan for disaster preparedness and coordinate a coherent response to future disasters as well as crises including reinforced preventive measures and capacity for emergency response.
The prime minister said the government has chalked out a comprehensive plan to involved all agencies in the relief, recovery and reconstruction process in the affected areas. He said the federal government has provided leadership in the aftermath of the earthquake and has mounted its largest relief efforts ever.
He said uniform personnel, civil authorities, doctors, nurses and volunteers are engaged with great zeal in the relief activities and doing their utmost despite a number of constraints. Shaukat expressed confidence that with the assistance of our people and international community the government will be able to help the victims and recover their sufferings by rebuilding their homes and lives.
"Rebuilding the impacted areas is a monumental task that will take several years and it would involve restoration of damaged infrastructure, rebuilding of schools, a large number of hospitals as well as relocation and resettlement of hundreds of thousands of homeless people," he added.
The prime minister said a coordinated system would be required in the reconstruction and rehabilitation process after moving from relief an Earthquake Rehabilitation Authority has been set up to coordinate these efforts.
He assured the people of Azad Jammu and Kashmir that the people of Pakistan stand shoulder to shoulder with them in this difficult hour and would extend full support in their reconstruction process.
The prime minister extended deepest condolences to those who lost their near and dear ones and prayed for departed souls of the victims. He also expressed gratitude to all rescue workers, men and women, Armed Forces, civil authorities, civil society organizations and the general public who are making tireless efforts under severe condition in the impacted areas.

Islamabad seeks trauma teams: Pakistan on Monday put out a fresh appeal for more tents and blankets while seeking fully equipped medical trauma teams to treat over 65,000 badly injured people still arriving from the earthquake-affected areas.
Major-General Farooq Ahmed Khan, the recently appointed Federal Relief Commissioner, said medical and trauma teams with orthopaedic surgeons, volunteer doctors and paramedical staff along with, X-rays, CT Scan and other related equipment were urgently required.
He said the government had identified all areas affected by the 7.6-magnitude tremor on Oct 8. However, he said it was difficult to say when relief could reach all the inaccessible areas. Briefing newsmen about the relief operations, Maj-Gen Khan said the death toll might be revised from that of 39,422 as more bodies were being pulled out from the rubble. About the figure of 53,000 deaths as stated by the prime minister of Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Gen Khan said the figures were estimates adding "we do not contest anyone’s words."
When asked about the figure of missing people, the relief commissioner said it would be a "heart-wrenching decision" as the tragedy was far greater than the tsunami. He said around 100,000 people had been affected in the Jhelum valley road, while 30,000 in the lower Neelum valley.
About the restoration of roads blocked by several landslides in Azad Kashmir, Maj-Gen Khan said both the Neelum and Jhelum valley roads would require "concerted" efforts of around four weeks to fully operationalise. However, he added that mules, air-drops by C-130s and helicopters were continuing in the affected areas.
Maj-Gen Khan said engineering teams along with heavy equipment from friendly countries were arriving in the country. These would be utilised to fully restore the Neelum valley road. He said Pakistan still required 260,000 tents and two million blankets for the people rendered homeless by the earthquake.
He said around 33,000 tents and 133,000 blankets had been distributed, while 40,000 were in the pipeline. These, he added, had been purchased by the government from abroad or are part of the donations from friendly countries.
Maj-Gen Khan said 6000 tents a day would soon be available from 37 factories in the Punjab. He said the funds in the President’s Relief Fund had risen to Rs 4 billion, while foreign assistance had gone up to $528.2 million, besides $51 million by the United Nations.
Maj-Gen Khan said that due to bad weather on Saturday and Sunday a few helicopter flights could operate but on Monday the evacuation of the injured began again and 1,200 sorties had so far been made.
About the concern shown by the people from across the country about the unaccompanied children, he said all hospitals had been directed to photograph all such children and to acquire their details and to keep them protected. Maj-Gen Khan said the Punjab government had offered 5000 beds in its hospitals at Lahore, Faisalabad and Multan and the injured would be shifted through C-130s and trains for those who could travel. He said 780 more beds were now available in Islamabad and around, while the Cantonment General Hospital in Rawalpindi was also being fully utilised.
He said that on Monday 1.2 tonnes of medical supplies, 2,300 tents, 19 tonnes of ration, 10,000 blankets, 13 tonnes of water and miscellaneous items were sent. Electricity supply was restored almost fully in Bagh and to a larger extent in Rawalakot and Muzaffarabad by the efforts of seven Rapid Repair teams of Wapda. Similarly, the telephone network was also partially restored in these areas. He said seven out of 10 microwave stations were now working.
He said 110 Thuraya PCOs and 78 land-line PCOs were set up to offer free calls for three minutes to the affected people.
He said water supply in Muzaffarabad was also partially restored and three water purification systems from Austria were installed. For maintaining the flow of traffic and maintaining law and order, Maj-Gen Khan said 100 personnel from Islamabad police and 700 from the Punjab had been deployed in AJK.
He said there was adequate food now in the forward areas and medicines, tents and blankets were required. When asked about the complaints that relief was still not reaching many areas, the relief commissioner again asked all the NGOs and volunteers who were personally delivering these to the affected areas to hand the relief items over to the military forward bases for equitable distribution. The News International

UN convenes donors’ meeting on 24th: Rehabilitation, reconstruction:The United Nations has convened a meeting of donor agencies in Geneva on Oct 24 to assess the extent of damage caused by last week’s earthquake and to propose appropriate rehabilitation and reconstruction assistance.“We will be informing the donors in Geneva as to what happened in Azad Kashmir and northern parts of Pakistan due to the deadly Oct 8 earthquake and we hope to get a positive response from the donors’ community,” Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said.Talking to reporters here on Monday, the prime minister said that the initial focus of the Geneva meeting would be on strengthening relief and rescue operation which would then lead to huge rehabilitation and reconstruction efforts.Mr Aziz, who was accompanied by IMF Managing Director Rodrigo de Rato, said he had informed the visiting fund delegation that Pakistan was facing a huge challenge of rehabilitation and reconstruction and needed adequate support of international donor agencies and other institutions.The IMF chief had earlier met President Gen Pervez Musharraf and then held a one-to-one meeting with the prime minister. Later, Mr Aziz and Mr Rato held a meeting which was attended by their aides.Responding to a question, Mr Rato said that Pakistan might have to look into its defence expenditure in the aftermath of the disaster. “I think the defence expenditure has to be reassessed under these circumstances,” he added.“Pakistan is confronting short-term challenges, including the need for emergency support and the need to rebuild in the areas affected by the earthquake,” he said. He added that the IMF would continue to provide policy advice and technical assistance to Pakistan.He also said that “some temporary widening of the budget deficit may be unavoidable,” although the international community was providing assistance to Pakistan.“Further tightening of monetary policy might, however, be necessary,” he said, adding that Pakistan was also confronted with the problem of sharp increases in international oil prices. The authorities, he said, had appropriately allowed a substantial pass-through of this increase into domestic prices for petroleum products to help safeguard the budgetary position.Mr Rato said that acceleration of economic growth had been accompanied by a pick-up in inflation. Efforts to reduce the inflationary pressure and their initial success were welcome, he added.“Over the medium-term, the key challenge for Pakistan is to sustain higher rates of economic growth and ensure that living standard was raised and poverty was reduced and this will require substantial increases in investment,” he said.The strengthening of delivery of public services to the poor was a need which called for continuation of institutional reforms and more domestic resource mobilization to meet higher expenditure in these areas, he added. Dawn