President Pervez Musharraf says the amount of foreign reconstruction aid pledged after the October 8 quake is ‘totally inadequate.’ Talking to the BBC, he said about 620 million US dollar had been promised, but Pakistan needed about 5 billion to rebuild devastated areas.
An estimated three million quake-hit people lack adequate shelter.
Gen Musharraf said he was confident that all the areas hit by the earthquake 12 days ago would be reached by relief teams before winter, but added there was still an urgent need for more tents and tarpaulins to help the survivors.
He said it was likely that Pakistan would need to build 500,000 houses.
“I’ve spoken to the army commanders right at the grassroots level. I know their deployment exactly and what they exactly are doing. So I’m reasonably confident.
“I’ve seen on the peaks where the roads are blocked, I’ve seen in the area in the mountains and I’ve seen that there are signs of people having reached there (to deliver aid)… in the form of some kind of sheets and tents.
“Therefore, I believe that they have been reached out. Now I’m not saying that there is no problem at all. There is a problem but I feel confident that before the onset of winter we would have reached out and hopefully provided …. shelters.”
Defending the army in the face of criticism of its response to the crisis, the president said: “Whenever there’s a problem, there’s criticism from some people, from some quarters. I don’t bother about that... Now the vast majority is supportive of whatever has happened.
“The whole nation is galvanized. The whole nation is helping and the army is helping and I think we are feeling very happy with ourselves for having reacted in such a positive manner as a nation, army included.”
He said the army had managed to get aid through, despite working in very difficult conditions.
The United Nations has appealed for urgent help to prevent a massive second wave of deaths in the fierce Himalayan winter.
Ten thousand tents will be flown to Pakistan over the next few weeks, but the UN has warned there may not be enough winterized tents in the world to meet the needs of quake victims.
On rejecting Indian helicopters, President Musharraf said: “We have enough helicopters there... We don’t want to take their helicopters with military personnel. Will they take our helicopters? If I want to send my helicopters to the Indian side, I ….am 200 per cent sure they will not take it.”
“There are military defence plans, there’s military deployment here like on the Indian side. We don’t want their military to be coming here. Not at all.
“There is the sensitivity of our army versus their army, and also the people round here — there’s a very big sensitivity. We will not allow that.”
Saying his proposal for opening of the LoC is a positive move, the president said: “I believe moving forward is in political terms... let’ make the Line of Control irrelevant. Let’ open it out, let people come on our side or our people go to their side to help in reconstruction.
PHOTO CAPTION
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf speaks with a survivor during his tour in Balakot, Pakistan, Wednesday, Oct. 19, 2005. (AP)