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Quake-hit Pak to import 50,000 tents from India

    Islamabad: Pakistan government has decided to import nearly 50,000 tents from India for the purpose of rehabilitating the quake-affected people before the winters set in. According to WHO sources carrying relief and rescue operations in PoK and parts of Pakistan, the devastating quake had rendered nearly 2.5 million people homeless. At a meeting yesterday, the federal cabinet also decided to waive off the 25 per cent custom duty, 15 per cent sales tax and six per cent withholding tax on the import of tents from any country, The Dawn reported. Announcing the cabinet's decisions, Pakistan Textile Minister Mushtaq Ali Cheema said the Indian government had been told that Islamabad would gradually import all the surplus tents for providing shelter to the quake victims.

    The minister further said that the private sector had also been asked to import tents duty-free from any country, including India, China, Taiwan, Turkey and South Korea, to meet the increasing demand in the wake of the large-scale destruction of homes by the quake. According to him, the displaced and shelter-less people in PoK and northern parts of the North West Frontier Province would need nearly 0.2-0.25 million tents for rehabilitation. The minister added that local manufacturers of tents and tarpaulins had also been asked to increase their production to meet the domestic demand. Meanwhile, The News quoted Pakistan's disaster response chief Maj-Gen Farooq Javed as saying that there was a dire shortages of blankets and tents and that all the quake-hit victims might not be able to get adequate shelter before the winters set in. "It is not possible to provide shelter to all the affected people before the winter approaches," Javed reportedly said addressing press persons in Islamabad. "We are importing two million blankets from outside. We are importing 100,000 tents of large size from abroad. It would take many years to say the least to rebuild the quake-hit areas in the north of the country and in PoK," he added.