More catastrophic than tsunami

03 Nov, 2005

The catastrophe of 8th October 2005 which struck the northern Pakistan and Azad Kashmir has made 4.0 million people homeless and the extent of destruction of houses and communities is far more than tsunami as stated by WHO.
Hussain A. Gezairy doubts that the same amount of money would be raised for rehabilitation of earthquake victims as was raised for tsunami. In such a situation Sri Lanka was given a status of duty-free zone with zero-rated duty, especially from countries like USA and EU Jakarta was given special privileges for economic growth.
I strongly feel that the government should appeal and represent to the international community that the Pakistan economic stage is set for recovery and it should not slow down. Almost after 10 months the tsunami-hit Indonesia has announced an increase of 6% in their export even though they still have 65,000 people living in tents.
The aid agencies rebuilding work in Aceh (Indonesia) started in April and has a four-year mandate to oversee a largely internationally funded reconstruction effort likely to cost upto dollar 5 billion, but that will get them just the basics.
In a country as advanced as Japan, the Kobe reconstruction took 10 years after the earthquake. Our government should take full advantage for the economic growth to be at a same pace.

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