By Azizullah Khan
QUETTA: About 80 percent of buildings in Quetta are in a critical condition and cannot withstand a high-intensity earthquake, Rozi Khan Kakar, the Zarghun Town nazim, said on Wednesday.
He was speaking at a meeting organised by the Legislative Watch Programme (LWP) of the Aurat Publication and Information Service Foundation (APISF) on ’Disaster Management System in Pakistan: Are we ready?’ on Wednesday. The meeting was meant for giving food for thought on likely and unlikely natural calamities and whether people are prepared enough to cope with them and their consequences.
Mr Khan said that notices were served to the owners of the buildings, which are in a poor condition adding that a survey of the buildings of educational institutions was also in progress.
Shafiq Ahmad, a Pakistan People’s Party member of the Provincial Assembly, said most of the school building were at risk and a large number of school children could die in case of a severe earthquake. He said it was regrettable that a disaster management system had not be evolved since the inception of the country.
Bilquis Saif, a Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal MPA, said the provincial government was not ready to cope with a post-earthquake situation. She said the October 8 earthquake proved that all government agencies and administration failed to cope with the catastrophe. She said the government had started a survey regarding the building code.
Zahoor Ahmed Shahwani, the vice chairperson of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, stressed effective coordination between the government, army and civil society to deal with the disasters and their aftermaths. He regretted that there was a lack of coordination in the relief and rehabilitation operation launched in the quake-hit areas.
Dr Mujeebur Rehman, the senior superintendent of police (Investigations), informed the participants that the department planned to train 500 police personnel in serving during disasters.
Humayun Khan, the Balochistan home secretary, said the government was committed to disaster management in the province and it was working on a PC-I costing Rs 120 million with cooperation of the United Nations Development Fund. He sought the cooperation of technical experts/consultants for identifying the needs and equipments required for disaster management.
Shafiq Ahmad, an eyewitness of the 1935 earthquake, said the total population of Quetta was 50,000 at that time and approximately 30,000 to 35,000 people were killed. Now the city had a population of 2.2 million and the casualties would be much more if preemptive steps were not taken, he said. Brigadier (Retd) Abdul Rahim Durrani, the former governor of Balochistan, stressed the need to form a Disaster Management Organisation in the province. He also voiced for effective coordination between various concerned departments.
Participants regretted that a disaster management system (DMS) was not in place in the country, and as such there was a need to evolve an effective and concrete strategy and make a compact system to cope with natural calamities and their aftermath. The participants were unanimous that natural calamities cannot be coped with individually and collective efforts are needed by the government, civil society and citizens. They also called for cooperation and coordination between the government and other organisations at the community-level and establishment of effective plans to cope with disasters and their aftermaths. They called for making the Civil Defence department more effective and re-launch of the National Cadet Course training for students.
Members of national and provincial assemblies, nazims of various districts of Balochistan, government officials, non-government organisations and media persons attended the meeting.
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