Chief Justice Hammedur Rehman of the Islamabad High Court on Monday directed Balochistan’s Chief Minister Nawab Aslam Raisani to submit a response to a contempt petition filed against him and other officials for their failure to provide financial aid to families who had lost their homes and valuables in the disastrous earthquake of 2008.
Along with the Chief Minister, Chief Secretary Balochistan Babar Yaqoob Fateh Muhammad and Chairman National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), Dr. Zafar Qadir were also named in the contempt petition.
On March 14, the same bench had given six months to the federal government to account for the losses of Baloch families who had suffered personal loss in the earthquake.
The court had given directives stating that, once a survey is done, the affected families, in compliance with the prime ministers plan, should receive Rs350,000 each as financial aid. The Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) promptly conducted an urgent survey of the area. However, when it came to disbursement of the funds 187 families, including those of Khanozai District in Pishin, did not receive a single penny of the money that had been officially allotted to them.
The petitioner Syed Saifur Rehman filed a contempt application seeking criminal action against the respondents for not following the court’s orders. During the course of the hearing the counsel for the petitioner Ali Murad Baloch maintained that despite the passage of six months the respondents still had not followed the court’s order. He requested the court to take criminal action against the respondents including the Chief Minister of Balochistan.
The petitioner’s counsel claimed that following the earthquake, the government received over Rs2.62 billion in aid, out of which Rs2 billion has been distributed among the quake-stricken while the remaining amount is still with the government, which could easily be used to compensate the remaining victims. After the hearing Chief Justice Hameedur Rehman passed the order seeking an official reply from all those concerned.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 23rd, 2012.
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