PESHAWAR: The opposition members demanded increase in compensation amount and resurvey to assess the damage as the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly completed debate on the post-earthquake situation on Friday. Winding up the debate, Minister for Public Health Engineering Shah Farman told the House the relief operation had been completed in one month and almost all the victims had been paid by November 26. “This showed the efficiency of the government and the relevant agencies,” he added. The minister said both the federal and provincial governments didn’t politicise this natural disaster by avoiding point-scoring as they concentrated on providing relief to the affectees.Responding to the opposition’s argument that the compensation for the damaged houses was inadequate, he said the government adopted a realistic approach so that timely payment could be made to the affectees. He pointed out that Rs200,000 were being paid to those whose houses were completely damaged and 100,000 for every partially damaged house. He challenged the opposition to pinpoint any irregularity as complete list of payment of compensation to the victims was available. Earlier, Dr Haider Ali of Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI), Mufti Fazal Ghafoor of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-F), Pakistan People’s Party (PPP)’s Muhammad Ali Shah Bacha, and Sardar Zahoor and Rishad Khan of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) took part in the debate. The legislators expressed dissatisfaction at the role of the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) and the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA).They said the affectees had to stay under the open sky without tents, blankets and food items as the relief agencies had failed to reach the affected areas in time. They complained that many deserving people had been ignored in the damage assessment survey. There referred to reports of nepotism and lack of medicines and treatment facilities in Shangla and Buner. The lawmakers called for establishing the offices of the PDMA at the district or divisional level. However, almost all of them appreciated the prime minister, chief minister and army authorities for the quick response and visits to the affected areas. The members condemned the attack on Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) leader and federal Minister for Housing and Works Akram Khan Durrani in Bannu and said it happened due to security failure. child. Unfortunately the pulley of the well fell apart and the constable died. The IGP had moved a summary for granting a special compensation package for families of these cops but it was turned down by the Finance Department.There are a number of other incidents where police personnel exhibited extraordinary conduct while working in extremely formidable circumstances that needed to be acknowledged. Now once again the IGP has taken up this issue and has requested the provincial government to approve a special compensation package for payment of their salaries till superannuation, enlistment of one legal heir as constable and monetary grant of Rs1 million.
