Soon after October 8 earthquake that damaged a large portion of NWFP and 80 percent of Azad Jammu and Kashmir, the UN had given a flash call to its member countries and convened a conference at Geneva to generate funds for rehabilitation and construction work.
Advisor to the Prime Minister, Dr Salman Shah, a member of the delegation told Business Recorder before departure that Geneva conference is an important forum to apprise the world about earthquake loss and seek money for rehabilitation and construction and the delegation will make best use of the opportunity to make the UN member countries feel that the scale of earthquake damage was much more than what the international community was estimating and it should donate generously to the funds established for rehabilitation and reconstruction.
The delegation comprised Senate Chairman, Mohammadmian Soomro, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Khusro Bukhtiar, Minister of State for Economic Affairs, Hina Rabani Khar, Additional Secretary Foreign Affairs, Iqbal Ahmed Khan.
Salman Shah said that the delegation would apprise the conference about the earthquake aftermath and huge damage caused to infrastructure and other establishments in affected areas.
The advisor added that the UN call is for 312 million dollars but Pakistan will stress for more money from the UN member countries who in his opinion can play a vital role in generating funds for the affected people and reconstruction work.
According to the preliminary estimates the earthquake damage is around 5 billion dollars and the government will need around 7 to 8 billion dollars over the next five years for rehabilitation and reconstruction. It will also need technical assistance from developed countries to construct earthquake proof houses in the affected areas to avoid such a huge loss in case any similar natural disaster reoccur in those areas.
On the call of the government of Pakistan, several other countries such as Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and USA are also raising funds for the affectees. Pakistan has given repeated calls to the world community that it should come forward without wasting time for the help of affected people.
Around 4 million people are suffering from the deadly earthquake that left hundreds of thousands dead and injured.