Pakistan quake survivors protest against compensation delay
Over 1,000 survivors of last year’s earthquake held a rally outside Parliament in the Pakistani capital Islamabad today to protest delays in releasing compensation to them for rebuilding homes.
Chanting slogans such as “Stop taking bribes!”, “Stop cheating us!” and “Build our homes before snowfall”, the protesters marched from the Parliament to the offices of the Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority, which is responsible for releasing aid money to them for reconstruction.
The protest came a day before the first anniversary of the 7.6 magnitude quake that killed over 80,000 people in northern Pakistan and made another three million homeless.
Many survivors since then have been living in tent villages.
“I swear that I didn’t get even a single penny,” said Farooq Ahmed, 50, who had come from Muzafarabad, the capital of Pakistan’s part of Kashmir, where the October 8, 2005, quake killed thousands.
Shumila Bibi, 30, another woman protester, also accused the government of misusing aid funds.
“We are protesting against the Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority (ERRA) because we have not received any financial assistance,” she said, adding she was still living in a donated tent.
However, Information Minister Mohammed Ali Durrani promised that “each and every survivor will get shelter.”
“This is our commitment, and we will honour it,” he told a gathering of survivors in Balakot, one of the cities in north-western Pakistan that was ruined by the quake.
The president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, has said that his government will ensure the provision of basic facilities to the people affected by the quake and he hopes that 80 percent of the reconstruction will be over in the coming three years.
