Government urged to form national crisis cell

Opposition members of the parliament have demanded setting up of a "National Crisis Management Cell" to handle reconstruction.
They made this demand at a seminar on "political lessons from the earthquake", organised by the Pakistan Liberal Forum here on Monday.
PPPP Sherry Rehman, MMA Hanif Abbasi, PML-N Ahsan Iqbal and Rawalpindi district nazim Raja Javed Akhlas spoke on the occasion.
Addressing the seminar, Sherry Rehman said crisis management cell is a critical need of hour to react to any possible natural calamity.
She said the parliament is being bypassed while taking decisions on major national issues and such decisions do not reflect the peoples' concerns.
The government is not responding promptly in provision of relief services, she said, added despite constant warning of the UN about another major disaster due to severe cold, it is not taking any concrete step to provide shelter to earthquake-affected people.
Ahsan Iqbal said our nation should learn from recent disaster and prepare a plan to handle such crises in future.
He pointed out running the government is the task of politicians and public representatives, which is not really happening in Pakistan.
Blaming the government, he said it completely failed in mobilising resources and people in initial days of earthquake due to which maximum people lost their lives.
"The government was capable of arranging more than 250 helicopters from international community in the first three days of the disaster," he pointed out.
He demanded of the government no to construct the GHQ and resources be diverted toward relief of earthquake victims.
He pointed out 90 percent of tents provided to the people by the government cannot survive the harsh winter and questioned who is responsible for this.
Hanif Abbasi said the government should share powers and resources with the opposition to handle relief and reconstruction operation properly, he said.
Asif Khan, chairman of the Liberal Forum, said there is no crisis management cell in Pakistan due to which causalities have been always high during such disasters.
"Due to the absence of building code and its application in the country, citizens' life are always at risk," he feared.
Raja Javed Akhlas said the Rawalpindi district government is conducting survey of buildings to assess their present conditions.
He said the city government has also started building necessary infrastructure to cope with any catastrophe in future.
Construction of high buildings and using substandard material in the city would not be allowed anymore, he assured.