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Community mobilisation will help quake-hit areas: PM

ISLAMABAD: Again appreciating Pakistani people’s spirit of unity and volunteerism in the post-earthquake situation, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz expressed optimism that community mobilisation would play a role in the early rehabilitation and reconstruction of quake-affected areas.

Shaukat Aziz expressed these remarks in separate meetings with Jehangir Khan Tareen, the federal minister for industries, production and special initiatives, Shoaib Sultan, chairman of the National Rural Support Programme (NRSP), and some foreign dignitaries who called on him at the Prime Minister’s House on Monday.

Tareen informed Shaukat Aziz that the utility stores corporation would soon open its outlets in the quake-torn areas. He apprised Aziz that NRSP and Sun Rise Society (SRS) would rehabilitate 100,000 families with the assistance of the World Bank.

Shaukat Aziz emphasised that the Sarhad Rural Support Programme and NRSP to prepare a comprehensive plan to involve all segments of communities in rehabilitation work.

Earlier, World Economic Forum (WEF) Executive Director Robert Bellhouse met Aziz at the PM’s House and discussed the assistance required by Pakistan from the WEF for the rehabilitation of quake-affected areas. Aziz apprised the visiting dignitary about the extent of damage and devastation caused by the earthquake and said that the government had set up two agencies to coordinate the relief, rescue, reconstruction and rehabilitation work in the quake-affected areas.

Bellhouse said the WEF had a separate cell for helping countries, which were facing disaster and other natural calamities and assured full cooperation from the WEF in the rehabilitation of quake-affected areas. The WEF, through its global membership, would share the disaster’s gravity with all the stakeholders to help the people of Azad Jammu Kashmir and NWFP, he added.

V F Rashnikov, the chairman board of directors Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works, Russia, called on Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz at his official residence on Monday.

Expressing his sorrow over the extent of loss from the tragic earthquake, Rashnikov said that his company had planned to invest in Pakistan.

Shaukat Aziz told him that the national economy was growing and was stable because of government’s policies.

The investment friendly policies initiated by the government have encouraged international companies and investors to invest in Pakistan, in which all areas were open for investment. online

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