MUZAFFARABAD, Nov 18: President Gen Pervez Musharraf on Friday held out the assurance that there would be transparency and accountability of earthquake relief assistance flowing into Pakistan from other countries and donor agencies. He held out this assurance in the presence of UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan at Thuri Park Tent Village while talking to the accompanying media team.

Notably the assurance comes on the eve of the International Donors’ Conference convened to mobilize funds for rehabilitation and reconstruction efforts in the quake-ravaged parts of Azad Kashmir and the NWFP.

Taking the cue on the question of an accountability mechanism from the UN secretary-general, President Musharraf said his government was extremely cognisant of this aspect.

“Total transparency and accountability will be ensured of every penny that we get,” he said.

He said in order to ensure that ‘relief is given to the right persons’ the government had set up committees of the revenue department, local government, parliamentarians and military men.

He said he would disclose at the donors’ conference on Saturday the transparency and accountability measures that the government had adopted, including audit of the quake aid money by foreign auditors.

Earlier, looking at a foreign correspondent who had posed a question regarding the accountability mechanism to Mr Annan, the president intervened to say: “May be you do not know the Pakistani environment that well,” adding it was the civil government who asked for the military to be included (in the relief and reconstruction efforts) to ensure 100 per cent transparency and accountability.

He reiterated: “It is the inclusion of the military which will ensure transparency and accountability of all the funds that come in.”

At the outset, President Musharraf expressed gratitude to Mr Annan and his wife for travelling all the way to see what was happening here and ‘to contribute their bit’ in generating support for the earthquake victims

He also thanked the UN agencies, NGOs, foreign and Pakistani, working at the camp.

“I must commend all of you for the degree of cooperation that is going on between the military, the civil government, the NGOs and the UN organisations,” the president said.

Endorsing the view, the UN secretary-general said that the military and civilians had made a good team.

“Quite frankly, without the logistical heavy lifting by the military, we wouldn’t be where we are today. So I applaud the military for its ability to work with the civilian humanitarian teams the way they have done,” he said.

Praising the role of the army in dealing with the catastrophe, Mr Annan said: “I think we have been extremely happy to be able to get the kind of cooperation we’ve got. Normally humanitarian workers do not like to work with the military but it has worked extremely well here.

“I also know often the

military want to do their

own military work and do not want to linger doing some of these humanitarian or civilian tasks any longer than it is necessary. So I am very, very pleased with what I have found here.”—Q.A.