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Published 09 Apr, 2008 12:00am

Protest against ‘delay’ in rebuilding in AJK today

MUZAFFARABAD, April 8: A protest rally has been organised for Wednesday against the “inordinate delay” in execution of reconstruction related activities in the earthquake affected capital of Azad Jammu and Kashmir.

Speaking at a news conference here on Tuesday, organisers claimed that the rally would prove a referendum against the AJK government which “had been indifferent to the hilt towards the rehabilitation and reconstruction of quake-affected areas.”

Ever since its inception, the present government has been making one after the other “hollow announcement,” but practically so far it has failed to initiate and execute even a single project of public utility on the ground, said Shaukat Javed Mir, Asif Mustafai and others, under the banner of “Muzaffarabad Awami Mahaz”.

They demanded that Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani should constitute a high-powered commission at the federal level to investigate and unearth the irregularities and corruption in the name of reconstruction which was nowhere in sight even after the passage of two and a half years after the devastating earthquake.

The new government should probe that where the money that had poured in for the welfare of quake survivors had gone and why the survivors were still restricted to live in miserable conditions, they said. The federal government should also take stock of the “useless foreign tours” of the AJK government functionaries in the name of Kashmir at a time when they were required to dedicate their time and attention to the most important task of reconstruction, they added.

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