MANSEHRA: The survivors of October 8, 2005 devastating earthquake would stage a sit-in on 14th anniversary of the tragedy tomorrow."We have been living in prefabricated houses under miserable condition for the last 14 years but successive governments at the centre and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa failed to address our core issues," Mohammad Riaz, the former nazim of the Garlat Union Council in Balakot, told reporters on Sunday.A group of former nazims and locals led by Riaz said that they would mark the anniversary of the 2005 earthquake by staging a protest to press the federal and provincial governments for acceptance of their demands."Our lawmakers and government officials, who even didn't bother to visit us, would rush here only for photo sessions but we would never allow them to deceive survivor families again," he said.A former councillor, Safdar Hussain, said that hundreds of schools and health facilities were yet to be reconstructed while survivor families had no basic amenities in the area. "The New Balakot City housing project, which was launched in 2017 with an estimated cost of Rs13 billion couldn't be developed as yet and survivor families are still bearing the brunt," he deplored.The traders would observe a complete shutdown and hold a mass prayer for departed souls of earthquake victims on the 14th anniversary of the tragedy. "Our association met here on Sunday and decided to observe a complete shutdown strike on the anniversary of the earthquake," Javed Iqbal, the president of traders body in Balakot, told reporters after the meeting. He said successive governments ignored traders who had lost businesses and whatever they possessed.
from The News International - National https://ift.tt/2oaq6GT
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