PRESIDENT Pervez Musharraf will present before the international conference of donors on 19’h November a doable strategy for rehabilitation and reconstruction of the areas devastated by the 8t’ October monumental catastrophe in Azad Kashmir and the adjoining areas of NWFP. Addressing the convocation of the National University of Science and Technology at Rawalpindi on Thursday, the President assured the millions affected by the devastating earthquake that the reconstruction facilities would be much better than before through the use of modern technology. The magnitude of widespread devastation is so colossal that no country on its own could face the challenge. Pakistan accordingly requires foreign and local assistance for this gigantic task ahead.
The strategy to be unfolded would call upon the donors either to make contributions to President’s Relief Fund or sponsor the construction of a house, school, college, hospital or an entire village or town. Apart from cash compensation to the bereaved families amounting to Rs. 100,000 each for those killed in the tragedy, the Government has started distribution of funds amongst the affectees to enable them to repair their damaged homes and re-start economic activity. So far a total amount of Rs1407 million has been distributed. Initial estimates of US$ 5 billion for reconstruction phase have been revised as more information is pouring in on loss of human life, cattle and property. With over 87,000 persons officially counted as dead and some 100,000 wounded, the funds required to rehabilitate millions are going to be huge. To date Government of Pakistan has received foreign assistance pledges amounting to US$ 2.33 billion against which cash remittances of only US$ 211 million have been received. The donors conference at Islamabad will be attended by leaders of over 100 countries and top ranking officials of international organizations. U.N. Secretary General Kori Annan will also participate and urge upon the world community to assist Pakistan in the colossal task of reconstruction.
Hopefully, with President Pervez Musharraf s presentation at the conference and appeals from leaders of the international agencies and friendly countries, the world will show greater generosity to help alleviate sufferings of millions hit by past one hundred years’ greatest natural disaster. Meanwhile US has increased its pledged assistance to US$ 156 million and President Bush is sending a high-powered team to make on the spot assessment of further requirements. It seems gradually the world is realizing the magnitude of the disaster. With outside help and help from people of Pakistan, the task of rehabilitating and reconstruction will be come possible. The doable strategy to be presented to donors will help generate necessary resources. Meanwhile, winter has set in and rains and snowfall have commenced in the quake zone. The sufferings of the shelterless are being compounded. With the spread of diseases in tent villages and other areas, burden on medical teams and hospitals is increasing.

A defeat for Blair

HAS British Prime Minister Tony Blair suffered a fatal defeat in Parliament over new anti-terror legislation that would have enabled police to hold suspected terrorists for up to three months without charge? Despite a 66-seat Labour Party majority, 40 Labour MPs ignored immense pressure from party managers and voted against the government, defeating the proposal by 31. Though pundits suspected the motion might be defeated narrowly, no one had anticipated that the defeat would be so stunning. In order to bolster the government vote, both Foreign Secretary Jack Straw and Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown were called back from overseas trips, the latter from a visit to Palestine and Israel.
Serious questions now hang over the future of Tony Blair, even though Downing Street said immediately that they did not take the vote as being an issue of confidence. The problem for the British premier is that he put his name squarely behind the demand that the time terror suspects could be held without charge be increased dramatically from the present 14 to 90 days. To back his case, he brought senior police officers to brief parliamentarians on what he said was their unanimously expressed need to have these new powers immediately. In fact, as with so much else in the Blair government style, this was not entirely correct. By no means all top police officers wanted this long period of detention without trial. And herein probably lies the real reason for Blair’s defeat. The British Parliament has been here before, specifically when it was assured categorically by Blair that the country should join America in attacking Iraq because of “indisputable evidence” from British intelligence that Saddam had WMD that could be readied within 20 minutes. This lie and the subsequent inadequate public inquiries have not been forgotten.
Therefore the debate in London yesterday may have been about legal niceties — in the end legislators voted by an even bigger majority to increase the time a suspect terrorist could be held to just 28 days — but the real issue was why anyone should trust Blair again when Parliament was being asked to commit to a radical new legislation. The Iraq factor weighed heavy on the minds of MPs. Blair and his government have grown used to winning — three consecutive elections and every single vote in the House of Commons since he came to power in 1997. Last night there was a look of bewilderment among top ministers who could have accepted a narrow defeat but had never imagined such overwhelming rejection. Since he had already announced that he would not lead Labour into a fourth general election, there were those who believed, even after this year’s election win, that Blair’s authority was damaged. Now that damage is not in doubt. The only questions are how injured he is and whether his colleagues, not least his heir apparent Gordon Brown, will support and protect him. When the war against terror was hijacked into an invasion of Iraq, Blair signed his political death warrant. Is execution now far off?

—Arab News