A petition seeking directions to the Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitate Authority (Erra) chairman to provide correct information about the funds obtained for the development projects and their allocation was filed in the Supreme Court here on Friday.
Former MNA Marvi Memon has filed the petition under Article 184 (3) of the Constitution, making the ERRA and National Accountability Bureau (NAB) through their chairman as respondents. The petitioner requested the court to also direct Erra to provide correct information about the number of development projects, which have actually been completed in the affected areas of KP and AJK. She sought directions to the NAB to audit, inquire and investigate all claims, allocation of funds, status of projects, completed or not completed.
She argued that the actions of Erra had been in grave violation of the fundamental rights of the people of KP and AJK. Particularly the ERRA has acted in violation of Article 25 which provides for "equality of citizens", Article 38 which provides for "promotion of social and economic well-being of the people and Article 19-A which provides for "right to information".
"Due to the actions of Erra and the poor level of development the people of KP and AJK are being discriminated. The projects are mostly funded by international donors, and therefore, their completion should have been at a speedy level, but due to high level of corruption in Erra internally, all the available funds are being used by persons in the Erra for their own personal gains and benefit," she added.
She maintained that due to lack of development in the affected areas of KP and AJK, the people of the areas were leading miserable lives. The actions of the ERRA were damaging and tainting the image of Pakistan all across the globe. Marvi said Erra was not only acting in a corrupt manner, but also miserably failed to provide the correct information about the development projects to the people of the affected areas.
She said the purpose of establishing Erra in 2005 was to reconstruct and rehabilitate the areas of AJK and KP, which were most affected by the earthquake. Over the years the speed and quality of development has significantly deteriorated. She said it was imperative to bring to the notice of the court that the Erra was being funded by international donors through the federal government.
She said there was very little progress of development on the ground than the tall claims made. She said out of the total 7,745 projects, about 4071 have been completed, which is too doubtful. The work was in progress on 2374 projects, while on 1300 project the work yet has to be started. This demonstrates not only the Erra's poor and slow performance, but in fact the information provided by Erra has been tampered with in order to hide the level of corruption that exist within Erra.