Quake-hit Pakistan exceeds aid target

By Zeeshan Haider

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – The world boosted aid pledges for
quake-devastated Pakistan to $5.8 billion on Saturday after the
United Nations warned there could be a second disaster as
survivors face the bitter Himalayan winter.

The sum exceeds Pakistan’s target of $5.2 billion for
recovery and reconstruction after the earthquake which killed
more than 73,000 and left hundreds of thousands homeless.

“The results were better than expected … we have received
pledges worth $5.827 billion,” Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz told
a news conference after an international donors meeting in
Islamabad.

Pakistan had been about $3 billion short of what it needed
to rebuild houses, schools, hospitals, water and energy
supplies, roads and civic administration.

Aziz said $3.9 billion of the aid pledged was soft loans
and $1.9 billion was grants.

The new pledges came after UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan
warned that survivors would die unless relief funds came soon.

“The pitiless Himalayan winter is almost upon us and
growing more and more severe every week,” Annan told the
conference which opened with harrowing video of quake damage
and survivors.

“We must sustain our efforts to keep people as healthy and
as strong as possible until we can rebuild,” he told
representatives from about 50 donor countries.

Pakistan’s President Pervez Musharraf praised old rival
India for its help and appealed to it to seize the opportunity
the quake had given the two countries to resolve their dispute
over Kashmir, the region hit hardest by the quake.

“Let us together solve the Kashmir dispute once and for
all,” Musharraf said.

The neighbors have agreed to open five points on their
heavily militarized, disputed border in Kashmir to help relief
efforts and allow divided families to meet.

Two dozen Kashmiris from the Indian side walked across the
heavily militarized frontier on Saturday – the first time in
nearly 60 years people had been allowed to cross on foot.

The October 8 quake left 500,000 homeless and affected 3.3
million in Pakistani Kashmir and North West Frontier Province.
About 1,300 people were killed on the Indian side of Kashmir.

LOST GENERATION

Rich nations and multilateral lenders pledged the lion’s
share of the extra aid, but even impoverished countries such as
Afghanistan and Bangladesh made contributions.

Thanking donors, Musharraf said it was now the turn of
Pakistanis, at home and abroad, to ensure aid needs were
fulfilled.

“I know that we are going to spend about $6 billion,” he
said. “Now that is a shortfall which we will make through
government efforts and this is where I feel the people of
Pakistan … need to come forward.”

Musharraf told the conference of a “lost generation,”
referring to how the quake destroyed schools, entombing
classrooms. The quake killed an estimated 35,000 children. A
total of 400,000 homes and over 10,000 schools need to be
rebuilt, he said.

Aid agencies say the relief effort is more daunting than
for Asia’s tsunami. Helicopters are the only way to reach many
survivors living high in the mountains.

The Asian Development Bank and World Bank each pledged
about $1 billion in financial aid, mostly in soft loans, and
the Islamic Development Bank doubled its financial aid to about
$500 million for rebuilding infrastructure.

“The scale of the catastrophe is stunning,” Asian
Development Bank chief Haruhiko Kuroda told the conference.

The World Bank said Pakistan’s poverty-reduction plan would
be at risk without more aid. China and Saudi Arabia together
announced soft loans and grants worth more than $600 million.

The United States added another $200 million in cash, a
targeted $100 million in private donations and said the value
of its military relief support had climbed to $110 million.

Britain gave another 70 million pounds, and the European
Union pledged $110 million in addition to about $200 million
pledged individually by its member nations.

Japan said several hundred million dollar yen-loans would
be made available for projects and China offered to help set up
a national network of seismic centers to warn of future quakes.

Musharraf proposed naming new villages after the donors
that paid for their construction, and called on cities round
the world to adopt a district in the earthquake zone.

(Additional reporting by Simon Cameron-Moore)