Pakistan wants more quake aid, rejects Oxfam fears

By Staff
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Google Oneindia News

ISLAMABAD, Oct 5 (Reuters) Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf asked the international aid community today for an extra 800 million dollars to cover reconstruction costs after a devastating earthquake a year ago.

Musharraf, addressing a conference to update donors on progress ahead of the October. 8 anniversary of the quake that killed over 73,000 people, dismissed criticism that Pakistani authorities were working too slowly.

''We must understand realities that things are going so well,'' Musharraf told an audience that included diplomats, representives from multilateral lenders and aid agencies.

Over three million people were rendered destitute by the quake, but Musharraf said only five per cent of those sheltered in the million tents distributed during the emergency last year would be facing a second winter under canvas.

That comes to about 35,000 people, he said.

Musharraf was upset with an assessment by international relief agency Oxfam that 1.8 million people were at risk once winter hit the Himalayan region because they lived in tents or makeshift temporary dwellings. He said the estimate was grossly exaggerated.

A month after the disaster, international donors pledged 6.5 billion dollar for Pakistan to help it through the relief, recovery and reconstruction phases of the crisis.

The reconstruction portion had been put at 3.6 billion dollars originally, but that greatly underestimated the number of new houses needed. The amount now required was 4.4 billion dollars, which meant Pakistan was 800 million dollars short, Musharraf said.

''I would urge... anyone that I'm accessing in this address to donate more for the President Relief Fund or the international community to help us more,'' he said.

The president said 600,000 new houses need to be built compared with an original estimate of 400,000. He targeted end-2008 for that task to be completed.

Eighty percent of all reconstruction would be finished within three years, with the rest completed within five years, he said.

Residents of Balakot, a town in North West Frontier Province that suffered massive damage, would be moved to a new town that will be built on a seismic free zone a few miles away, Musharraf said.

Reconstruction in Muzaffarabad, Bagh and Rawalakot, all towns in Pakistani Kashmir, would avoid areas at risk from seismic activity or vulnerable to landslides. Musharraf said he hoped China would play a big role in rebuilding Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistani Kashmir.

REUTERS PB PM1825

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