Khawaja Zaheer Ahmed - PDMA

divorces, required policy level attention for relief as was done for a special
person without hands.
Having noted that, the Commission feels that the factum that almost 27, 000
Watan cards had not been en-cashed has not been duly publicised to let people
know that very many considered eligible were reluctant to receive state
dispensation; many complaints of extending benefits to unaffected may have
been addressed in that process!
64. Provincial Disaster Management Authorities created in 2007 or
thereafter, to act through District Disaster Management Authorities, to partially
repair post-2001 fragmented local management structures on two counts: Non-
devolution of all service delivery functions and exclusion of many provincial and
federal areas from the purview of the electoral process, despite two Federal laws
promulgated for the purpose in 2002 and the 2005 earthquake. Since elected
District Governments did not cover the entire space in revenue districts due to
exclusion of cantonments from the new local government laws, an integrated set
up was conceived as a part of a unified command and control system, to deal
with the disasters through effective vertical and horizontal integration of territorial
and functional coordination through management structures. Provincial
Governments amended the respective Rules of Business to create PDM
Departments and to specify their policy and oversight functions. Most powers and
functions of the PDMA were/are at par with the erstwhile Relief Commissioners
but no evidence was led to substantiate if the inter-Provincial NDMA provided
any guidelines, as intended by the extraordinary law on the subject, primarily due
to political crisis generated by extra-constitutional dispensation enforced on 3 rd
November 2007, a month after promulgation of the 2007 Ordinance for
establishment of the NDMA in October 2007.
65. Civil Defence Organizations (CDO) mostly composed of volunteers, to
assist local administration / Army in rescue, evacuation and relief measures and
mobilize local personnel for disaster management, rescue and relief. The CDO is
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