Plight: Kashmiri refugees decry ‘shoddy work’ on housing scheme

Also demand raise in daily stipend.

MUZAFFARABAD: Kashmir refugees on Wednesday staged a protest demonstration in front of the Azad Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly (AJKLA) against delays in increase of monthly stipend and the alleged shoddy construction work on a housing scheme in the Thota area.

The protesters accused top Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) government officials of getting kickbacks from the contractor of the foreign-funded Model Housing Project to allow him to carry out the construction work in violation of the standards approved by the donors.

The 200-house Model Housing Project was being carried out with the financial help of the International Islamic Charitable Organisation of Kuwait.

According to the protesters, the construction company was supposed to construct separate and semi-houses, but it was constructing attached houses with 20 houses under one roof without proper ventilation.

“They look like warehouses and are not suitable for residential purposes,” claimed Mushtaqul Islam, a protesting Kashmiri refugee, while talking to The Express Tribune.

Uzair Ghazali, who was leading the protesters, said, “we have sacrificed everything for Pakistan and the Kashmir cause but the government officials are minting money from the Kuwaiti-funded project.” The 200 houses close to the Model Housing Project, which are being carried out by the International Islamic Relief Organization of Saudi Arabia, “are state-of-the-art, but the Kuwaiti-funded houses look like animal dens. We demand that the government and the donors investigate the matter to expose those who bring a bad name to the country,” Ghazali said.

AJK Minister for Rehabilitation Abdul Majid Khan rejected the allegation that the company was not following the defined standards. “We are ready to construct semi-houses in the next phase but the refugees are demanding we dismantle the whole structure. Who will pay the company?” the minister said.

Khan admitted that the AJK government could not raise the stipend, saying, “We are fully aware of their sufferings and have written to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who is the final authority to raise the stipend.”

Published in The Express Tribune, June 12^th, 2014.