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Senate body for lodging protest against India
* If allowed, Pakistan ready to support flood victims in IHK * Govt announces Rs 1m compensation for victims in AJK
By Ijaz Kakakhel
ISLAMABAD: The Senate Standing Committee on Kashmir Affairs and Gilgit-Baltistan on Wednesday expressed its concerns about relief efforts in Indian-Occupied Kashmir (IOK) and decided to lodge a formal protest to India through the Foreign Office.
The committee members were of the view that India who calls itself world’s biggest secular democracy should stop its discriminatory attitude in providing relief to the flood-affectees of Occupied Kashmir. The committee members along with Federal Minister for Kashmir Affairs and Gilgit-Baltistan Muhammad Birjees Tahir were of the view that Pakistan was ready to provide relief assistance to the residents of Indian-Occupied Kashmir, which according to them, were mistreated. Especially, the Muslim population were treated discriminately, which they said was regrettable. The committee was informed that more heavy destructions were made in Indian-Occupied Kashmir as compared to Azad Jammu and Kashmir.
The meeting wich Senator Baz Mohammad Khan in the chair began with offering prayers for those who lost their lives in floods. It reviewed conditions in Azad Jammu and Kashmir after the recent floods. The Azad Jammu and Kashmir chief secretary told the committee that losses in the territory were mainly due to landslides caused as a result of rains and flash floods. These floods have nothing to do with water coming from India and were purely because of extensive rainfall, he said.
Committee members expressed their concerns about preventive and precautionary measures in Azad Jammu and Kashmir. They were of the view that iron gabions (iron nets plus rocks) should be built to avoid landslides, which caused loss of infrastructure and precious lives. The chief secretary, however, said that the mountainous terrain in the territory has wet soil and the situation after extensive monsoon rains gets uncontrollable at any stage. These mountains have become weak after the 2005 earthquake and landslides have become a regular happening. He informed the committee that other than Mirpur, there was no flat land in Azad Jammu and Kashmir and that there was no possible way of changing the life patterns of people living on mountains. The role of administration appears in relief efforts and in this the Azad Jammu and Kashmir and the federal governments have performed at their best.
The State Disaster Management Authority director general briefed the committee that 3,000 people have been evacuated from the cities of Bagh, Poonch, Kotli and Mirpur. The pictures of devastation caused by floods showed in the briefing shocked the members and they asked the administration to come up with detailed report in the next meeting.
Minister Birjees Tahir proposed to the committee that National Disaster Management Authority chairman, Metrological Department director general and foreign secretary should also be called in the next meeting of the committee, which proposal was welcomed by the chairman. The members appreciated the minister for attending the meeting to which the minister replied that he used to be a member of the standing committees and that he holds the members in high regard.
The Azad Jammu and Kashmir chief secretary also informed the committee that the prime minister of Pakistan in his recent visit to the territory had announced the construction of District Headquarters Hospital in Haveli and construction of road from Haveli to Rawlakot. The committee was told that a total of 64 causalities have been reported so for because of rains/floods/landslides in Azad Jammu and Kashmir and that the federal government has announced/given Rs 1 million finanancial assistance to each of the victim families. The complete report of damages in Azad Jammu and Kashmir will be submitted to the federal government on Thursday (today).
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk