ISLAMABAD: A prominent Kashmiri civil society activist, privy to the developments regarding rehabilitation and reconstruction in the earthquake-affected areas of Azad Jammu and Kashmir has asked the AJK government not to hide facts regarding the shifting of funds meant for reconstruction and instead courageously press the Centre to make immediate efforts for damage control.
“It is very unfortunate that a person (AJK PM) who is responsible for implementation of reconstruction-related activities in his administered area has made a wrong statement on the floor of the Legislative Assembly just because the funds for reconstruction were shifted by his parent party in Islamabad,” said Zahid Amin, former head of the Development Authority Muzaffarabad (DAM).
In the recent session of the AJK Legislative Assembly, Prime Minister Majeed had declared that “contrary to allegations not a single penny of reconstruction-related funds was shifted by the federal government to Benazir Income Support Programme or in any other head.”
Instead, Majeed claimed, the federal government is making maximum possible efforts to ensure cash flow to carry forward reconstruction work in the affected areas, notwithstanding its financial constraints.
“Soon after the installation of President Asif Ali Zardari, shifting of reconstruction-related funds was done under the supervision of his secretary general, Mahmood Salim Mahmood, and I was the first Kashmiri to publicly speak about and against it in September 2008, despite holding an official position,” said Amin, while talking to The News on Tuesday.
Amin was appointed as administrator of Municipal Corporation Muzaffarabad in November 2005, a month after the devastating earthquake had played havoc with the town.
In November 2006, he was appointed as the DAM chairman, an institution declared as controlling authority of Muzaffarabad City Development Project (MCDP).
He held this position until January 2009. In July 2010, he was once again appointed as the DAM chairman, but he resigned from it in May 2011, shortly before the general elections.
Regarded as a strenuous protagonist of Muzaffarabad’s reconstruction, Amin said that Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani had made an announcement at ERRA Council meeting in September 2008 that the federal government would continue to provide funds for the reconstruction programme as per the requirements.
A similar assurance, he said, was extended by the then federal minister for Kashmir affairs Qamar Zaman Kaira on October 8, 2008, at a “fake groundbreaking (ceremony) of the MCDP” in a 5-star hotel in Muzaffarabad.
“I had boycotted that ceremony and kept on telling the private television channels throughout the day that the so-called groundbreaking was a mockery with the reconstruction process.
He said prior to the groundbreaking ceremony, he was invited by Kaira in his office in Islamabad where he assured him in the presence of Majeed (then an MLA) that the central government will continue need-based provision of funds, in phases.
However, he regretted, it was ironical that the federal government did not live up to its words and resultantly the reconstruction process hits snags.
Quoting a recent report, Amin said that around 250,000 Kashmiri children are still receiving education under the open sky because either the construction of their respective educational institutions was continuing at a snail’s pace or had not been initiated altogether mainly because of unavailability of funds due to their shifting. “Majeed should accept this bitter reality and, instead of giving false clarifications on behalf of the federal government, he should ask his leadership in Islamabad to do the damage control before it is too late,” he added. www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-3-112658-AJK-govt-asked-to-seek-centres-help-for-damage-control
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