President pledges soft term loans to quake affectees
By Our Special Correspondent

ISLAMABAD—President General Pervez Musharraf has said soft term loans will be provided to the earth quake affectees for their rehabilitation and loans on easy installments will be extended to them for construction of houses.
He issued these directives in a high level meeting held in Rawalpindi on Monday. Besides Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, interior minister Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao, foreign minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri, state minister for foreign affairs, Khusro Bakhtiar and senior civil and military officers also attended the meeting.
The meeting reviewed the steps taken for rehabilitation of earth quake affected families across the country particularly in northern areas and AJK. Certain important decisions were taken in this connection.
Giving details of the decisions, press secretary to President and director General ISPR, Maj Gen Shaukat Sultan told the journalists that a relief commission has been set up to monitor relief activities and work for rehabilitation of earth quake affectees. Maj Gen Farooq will head the commission at federal level. Commissioners have been appointed in four provinces and AJK who will coordinate each other and monitor relief work.
He informed that 9 US helicopters have arrived in Pakistan and five more helicopters will be made available till Wednesday. These will help accelerate pace of relief activities.
“Our top priority is to pull out maximum number of the people alive who are trapped under debris and clear directives have been issued to the concerned departments in this regard”, he underlined.
President has directed that food items, rice, pulses, dates and biscuits etc be provided to the injured by helicopters, he informed. Land routes to Murree, Muzaffarabad, Bagh and Rawlakot have been opened and bridge over river will be opened for general traffic, he indicated. Children were killed after the roofs of the houses caved in.
It is difficult to asses exact number of casualties, he said adding as per official sources, the number of killed people have been put at 20000. Fresh contingents of army have been dispatched to take part in relief work, he told.