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Junaid Qasim Shah
Mayor of Balakot region
Syed Junaid Qasim Shah was re-elected Mayor of the Balakot sub-district in northern Pakistan just four days before an earthquake hit the region on October 8, 2005, killing 14,000 people – including a large number of children – out of a population of 240,000. After this tragedy, he worked with Pakistan’s reconstruction team to develop an innovative reconstruction plan open to international cooperation and to define an ambitious development policy.