[Dawn] Elementary and secondary education minister Sardar Hussain Babak told Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central...
Assembly on Friday that military authorities were responsible for demolition of the buildings of around 200 Mansehra schools, which remained intact in the October 2005 earthquake.
Responding to a point of order of Pakistain Mohammedan League-Nawaz MPA Javid Abbasi, the minister told the House that army engineers had authorised contractors to dismantle about 200 schools which were earlier declared safe.
An earthquake measuring 7.6 on the Richter scale had struck the country`s northern areas and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa in October 2005, killing over 70,000 people and hundreds of thousands of buildings, including houses, were flattened.
Mr Babak said military authorities had awarded contract for demolition of 200 schools in Mansehra district after the earthquake though these buildings were declare safe. He said each of the schools in question was auctioned at Rs125,000 and that there was no need to demolish their buildings.
He said the provincial government was holding talks with foreign donors to provide assistance or grants for reconstruction of schools in Mansehra and other affected districts.
Speaking on the point of order, MPA Javid Abbasi said thousands of children had been studying in the open in harsh weather in the district.
He said the government didn`t provide shelter to children from chilly weather and demanded early reconstruction of the damaged buildings of schools.
The MPA said reconstruction authorities of the federal and provincial levels had failed to deliver and that funds allocated for reconstruction of schools in the earthquake-hit areas had been diverted to other provinces on the federal government orders.He said damaged infrastructure, including schools and roads, in the earthquake-affected areas required Rs9 billion for repair, adding that donors had provided assistance for reconstruction the infrastructure in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, not for construction of new projects in Multan, the prime minister`s hometown.