Prime Minister Azad Jammu and Kashmir Sardar Sikandar Hayat, while thanking the people and government of Pakistan for prompt response to the fate of quake-stricken Kashmiris, said on Thursday that relief activities were being undertaken to all the affected areas.
Talking to PTV on telephone, he said Kashmir was a mountainous region with scattered and isolated settlements. He said the entire communication infrastructure was shattered by the high intensity earthquake in the affected area, adding initially it was not possible to reach everywhere.
However the situation was gradually improving and relief activities were being expanded to all the affected areas, he said.
He said in areas where the road links had not been restored yet, the necessary items were being dropped by the helicopters.
Sikandar said that about two million population of the state had been affected and everything present on earth surface was shaken. That was a natural calamity and people should face it with courage and fortitude, he added.
He said media organisations particularly the PTV had played an excellent role in highlighting the situation in affected areas.
He said there was dire need of national unity and solidarity at that moment and everyone should think on those lines.
To a question, he said the first priority of the government was to rescue the survivors and provide them necessary medical treatment. Next comes the provision of food, shelter and clothing to the affected people while their permanent rehabilitation was the third priority, he added. To another question, he said most of the people living in isolated places in the Neelum Valley had marginal land occupation and the males from those settlements remained in big cities of Pakistan throughout the year to earn their living.
Proposal to bring down these people from the mountaintops to plain areas would be considered during the rehabilitation phase.
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