Fear of calamity won’t stop uplift plan, says Rashid

Says by facing dangers, we have to explore new development courses

ISLAMABAD:

Minister for Information, Broadcasting and National Heritage Senator Pervaiz Rashid said on Friday that the country’s development process could not be stopped for fear of a natural calamity.

“The development process cannot be stopped out of any fear. We have to live in Pakistan and take it forward. This is a country of mine and yours too,” he remarked while talking to media along with National Disaster Management Authority chairman Maj-Gen Asghar Nawaz.

The minister said by facing dangers, we have to explore new development courses to pave way for national progress and prosperity.

Various countries, he said, are situated at fault lines but they never stopped their development process out of any fear, adding that the government is ready to tackle the disasters.



Pervaiz Rashid pointed out that the earthquakes have also hit the United States and Japan but the countries keep up their development process.

Replying to a question, he noted that the construction of new roads from Kashghar to Gwadar under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) would help respond to any disaster even more effectively as any untoward situation could be better tackled if good infrastructure is in place.

Meanwhile, NDMA chief Asghar Nawaz said that the government has started payment of compensation to earthquake-hit families as the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government has released Rs2833.70 million.

He added that the rescue operation has almost completed while verification was in progress to compensate the affected families.

The NDMA chairman said that compensation of houses is planned to be disbursed from Monday.

Commencement of compensation process would help early construction of the damaged houses, he said, adding that five teams are working in each union council to collect data and verify damages.

According to Asghar Nawaz, 269 people died and 2,227 were injured due to the October 26 earthquake and most of the deaths were reported from Malakand division where total 35,492 houses were also damaged.

Some eight helicopters, three C-130 and two Fokker planes were taking part in the relief operation, he noted.

Regarding communication infrastructure, the NDMA chief said that all roads of the National Highway Authority are open and operational.

He said that 67 aftershocks had been reported after the deadly tremors.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 31^st,  2015.