The conference, to be chaired by Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, will be attended by international donors, provincial chief ministers, federal ministers and officials from the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank. The chief minister of Gilgit-Baltistan, prime minister of Azad Kashmir and governor of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, who is also the administrator of Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata), would also attend the meeting.
Officials of federal and provincial governments will hold comprehensive consultations will be held before the conference.
Damage and needs assessment reports prepared by the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank will be discussed on the opening day. Provincial governments are also likely to submit claims of financial losses.
On the second day, decisions to financially compensate provincial governments using foreign funding will be made and provincial governments will then prioritise relief and reconstruction.
Chief of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa’s Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) Shakeel Qadir Khan said that the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government has estimated its losses to be over Rs170 billion. “The claim has been verified by the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank.”
He said that the provincial government had diverted Rs17 billion from its Rs69 billion Annual Development Programme. Of the total, Rs6 billion were being spent on Watan card scheme. “The scheme will target 1.5 million people rendered homeless by floods.”
The government will also provide financial compensation to people who lost their homes in floods, he said.
“Upto Rs300,000 is being paid to heirs of 1,078 people killed in floods. Financial assistance to homeless people will continue for three to four years, until they are able to reconstruct their houses,” said Khan, who is also heading the Provincial Reconstruction, Rehabilitation and Settlement Authority.
In Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, however, the mood isn’t optimistic.
A senior provincial government official, who requested not to be named, said that he wasn’t too hopeful of receiving enough money from the federal government. “We will be lucky if Islamabad provides us even Rs50 billion against our claim. The federal government hasn’t paid a single penny to the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government so far.”
He claimed that a cheque, worth Rs50 million, was presented by the prime minister to the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa chief minister but it has not been honoured by the Utility Stores Corporation of Pakistan. “They were supposed to provide the province with foodstuff.”
In the first week of September, the prime minister had said that 77 countries had provided aid and that all foreign aid would be distributed equitably among flood survivors across Pakistan.
Published in The Express Tribune October 31st, 2010.
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