Compensation payment issue echoes in KP Assembly

Earthquake, flood victims

 PESHAWAR: The issues of payment of compensation to the October 8, 2015 earthquake affectees in Dir and allotment of plots of land to the flood victims in Chitral echoed in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly on Monday.

The assembly session presided over by Deputy Speaker Dr Mehr Taj Roghani debated the issue of providing compensation to the affectees of flash floods and the devastating earthquake.

Sahibzada Sanaullah, the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Member Provincial Assembly (MPA) from Upper Dir through a question had sought details of the payment to the affectees including their names, addresses and Computerised National Identity Card numbers. However, he was not satisfied with the reply and said the answer was incomplete.

The MPA repeated his allegations of nepotism in offering compensation and complained that scores of affectees in his constituency had been ignored. He said non-deserving people had been paid the compensation cheques while deserving ones were left out.

Muhammad Ali of Jamaat-e-Islami, who also hails from Upper Dir, supported the point. He said many affectees had not been paid. He said a demand for Rs820 million had been sent by the district administration to compensate the remaining affectees. However, he rejected the allegation of nepotism in enlisting the victim families and payment of compensation.

He admitted irregularities in the cheque distribution and said Rs7.4 million were recovered from non-deserving people in Barkand in Osherai Darra.Bakht Baidar of the Qaumi Watan Party also complained of nepotism in the distribution of compensation, adding that particular party activists were obliged.

Mufti Said Janan of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) and Raja Faisal Zaman of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) said the matter should be referred to the committee and those found responsible for the irregularities be punished.

Taking part in the debate, Advisor to Chief Minister, Fazle Elahi said he also had proof of irregularities in the payment of compensation.He said the deputy commissioner Upper Dir had withheld 4,000 cheques and the affectees were running from to pillar to post to get the compensation amount.

Fazle Elahi said the deputy commissioner and his office staff should be called to the assembly and asked as to why they were not distributing the cheques to the affected families.He and other members demanded registration of first information reports against those fraudulently giving and getting the cheques.

Finance Minister Muzafar Said maintained that the JI supported recovery of money from the non-deserving people. “Other parties should also support fair and transparent distribution of compensation,” he stressed.

Arif Yousaf, Special Assistant to Chief Minister, said details sought by the lawmakers had been provided and thus there was no need to refer the matter to the committee. However, on the members’ insistence he agreed to refer it to the committee.

The speaker referred the matter to the relevant committee.PPP MPA from Chitral, Sardar Hussain through a call attention notice drew the House attention towards delay in allotment of plots of land to the flood affectees whose houses had been washed away. He said in July last year flash floods hit the district and about 1,000 families were rendered homeless.

He said the prime minister, army chief and the chief minister visited Chitral and observed the situation. The chief minister announced 10 marla plots of land each for the affected families. He said the files of the cases were complete but bureaucracy was reluctant to allot the land so that the affectees could build their houses. He said the affected families were still living in tents in the severe cold weather.

However, advisor to the chief minister assured the MPA that the process of allotment of the plots would be expedited.On a point of order Rashad Khan from the Shangla district expressed concern over media and social media reports about the coalmine incident in Orakzai Agency and said the wrong news of casualties caused mental shocks to many people in Shangla.

He demanded an inquiry into the incident and assessing the situation of mining and security measures taken for the workers. He also demanded formation of a commission to check whether mining is being done according to international standard and workers are provided safety gadgets, etc or not as most of the mining workers in the country belong to the KP.

Abdul Munim said due to lack of schools and education facilities in Shangla people were compelled to do hard labour. Both the lawmakers demanded that a Working Folk School be established at Shangla along with other government schools.

Taking the floor, Minister for Mines and Mineral Anisa Zeb Tahirkheli said after learning about the mine collapse, she directed her department staff to provide technical assistance if needed. The minister said the governor should order inquiry into the Orakzai incident as the area was not in the jurisdiction of provincial government.

Through another call attention notice, PML-N parliamentary leader Sardar Aurangzeb Nalotha sought inquiry into the death of four Elite Force police cops in Naran due to landsliding in October 2015.

He alleged that Police Department had not done anything to rescue the five policemen when they got trapped. He said four of them died of hunger and cold while the fifth was rescued by Pakistan Army soldiers who brought him to a hospital in Abbottabad.

The legislator demanded judicial inquiry into the matter. He also called for payment of compensation to the heirs of the dead cops under “Shuhada package” and financial assistance to the surviving policeman.The speaker adjourned the session till March 17 when Mehmood Jan of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) pointed out the lack of quorum.