Village Journals
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DISCUSSING PAKISTAN
WHATS THE NEWS ON PAKISTAN ?????
Comments on this journal
MY BROTHER CAME BACK OVER THE WEEKEND, HE WAS SO PALE BUT THE LOOK OF SADNESS IN HIS EYES FILLED MY EYES WITH TEARS FOR ALL THE YOUNG CHILDREN WHO DIED, KNOWING ALL OF THEM HAVE BEEN BLESSED GO TO TO HEAVEN AND HAVE BEEN SAVED FROM A LIFE ON EARTH OF SINS AND BAD THINGS!!!!
ALSO IF YOU ARE TAKING ANY SUPPILES TO PAKISTAN, YOU HAVE TO BRIEB YOUR STUFF OUT OF THE AIRPORT AND THE OFFICERS THERE ARE TAKING ALL SORTS OF BRIEBS!!
MAKES ME THINK AFTER ALL THAT HAPPENED IN PAKISTAN,,,,,, THEY STILL ARE SO FUCKINN CORRUPTED,,,,,!!!
I WISH ALL THE POOR PEOPLE DIED IN THIS EARTHQUAKE AND ALL THE YOUNG CHILDREN WHO HAVE NOW BECOME ORPHANS SHOULD OF DIED TOO,,,,, THIS WAS THEY WOULD OF ALL BEEN IN HEAVEN AND HAPPIER!!!
MAKES ME SO SAD WHEN PAKISTAN STILL DOESN'T FOLLOW ISLAM...!!!
Blair pledges 10 million pounds more to quake relief
LONDON: British Prime Minister Tony Blair on Wednesday pledged an additional 10 million pounds in relief for the victims of the earthquake in Pakistan and neighboring countries.
During the first weekly question and answer session in the House of Commons since parliament returned this week from its summer recess, Blair said the new funds were on top of the two million pounds already pledged.
He expressed concern for Britons who may have relatives in Pakistan and neighboring countries.
Aziz fears 40,000 earthquake deaths
MUZAFFARABAD: Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz visited Muzaffarabad and other parts of Azad Kashmir and monitored relief operations in the area that bore the brunt of devastating earthquake.
Talking to reporters at Army stadium in Muzaffarabad he apprehended around 40,000 people could be dead in the earthquake.
Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said Wednesday relief operations in the wake of the earthquake soon would have to switch from rescue to "rehabilitation" as winter approached.
He said food and other relief items being provided to quake victims in Azad Kashmir and other territories by helicopters and C-I airplanes.
He said all measures being taken for relief operations and provision of food and medicines to the disaster victims in Azad Kashmir.
Most roads in the difficult mountain terrain have been reopened but several villages remained completely cut off four days after the earthquake.
He said we are opening up the Neelum valley soon while Jhelum valley road will be opened for heavy traffic tomorrow.
Crisis Management Cell in Abbotabad
ABBOTABAD: A Crisis Management Cell has been set up here for well-coordinated and organized distribution of relief goods in quake stricken areas.
Captain Munir Azam, district liaison officer here told Geo that the people across Pakistan have shown a high spirit of helping their quake-aggrieved brothers and relief goods were pouring in from every nook and corner of the country. Presently, volunteers themselves were distributing the goods, which without any coordination has created an imbalance in the sense that some areas have been flooded with relief goods while the others still remained starved.
He told that those willing to help could contact on 0992-9310200 or on DCO?s mobile 0300-4276763.
Earthquake death toll keeps mounting
ISLAMABAD: The death toll in earthquake struck areas of Azad Kashmir, Frontier province and Punjab was rising continuously as the relief teams make inroads into more and more thus far inaccessible areas, while Bagh, Muzaffarabad and some other areas appear to be confronted with serious threats of an epidemic breaking out due to large number of fast decaying corpses still lying buried under the debris.
Azad Kashmir suffered the heaviest toll of human lives in Ocotber 8 tragedy, where over 17,000 dead has thus far been confirmed. The outskirts of Muzaffarabad Shah Nara, Khawaja Mohalla, Tariqabad and Iddgah Road have remained still deprived without any relief and succour from either the government or by any federal agencies. The local people in district Bagh told that they were tired of digging graves and burying the bodies, which being in such large numbers, were now buried collectively in graves, while Muzaffarabad was gripped with the fears of an epidemic breaking out in the wake of decaying corpses still lying buried underneath the rubble.
The casualty figure in the Frontier province confirmed thus far stood at 4,000, which was likely to go up manifold. Frontier police told that in Balakot, Sangiari and other villages of district Mansehra 1,500 people died, while in Battgram the death toll reported to be at 1,100.
The heavy downpours and hailstorms yesterday hampered underway rescue and relief operations in the quake stricken areas through helicopters, which later resumed.
The wounded persons in Shangla, Muzaffarabad and Battgram were brought to the hospitals in Peshawar and other cities for medical aid.
Prime Minister, Shaukat Aziz in an Islamabad news conference told that Muzaffarabad and Balakot were the most severely earthquake-hit areas. He told that Pakistan has thus far received $300 million in foreign aids, while the people in Pakistan have deposited a sum of Rs600 million in the first 48 hours. The prime minister told that the opposition has assured all out cooperation at this hour of national tragedy, which augurs well.
MKRF sent three trucks loaded with relief goods to Bagh
ISLAMABAD: Three trucks loaded with relief goods left here for district Bagh in Azad Kashmir in between Tuesday and Wednesday night under the aegis of Mir Khalilur Rahman Foundation (MKRF).
These truckloads included emergency relief items such as foods, water, woolen clothes, tents, blankets and medicines, while further measures are being taken by MKRF to rush more relief goods to other earthquake affected areas also.
Rice to meet Musharraf today
ISLAMABAD: US Secretary of State Dr Condoleezza Rice is due to arrive here today from Kabul. In her brief visit she will meet President Pervez Musharraf.
Talking with newsmen in Kabul Rice said she would visit Islamabad to assure people of Pakistan that the United States and the international community stand with them in their trying time.
She will also ascertain the losses and discuss the ways and means with President Musharraf to mitigate sufferings of the quake victims.
Quake hit Balakot?s boy reaches Hyderabad
HYDERABAD: A 12-year courageous boy from quake hit Balakot arrived in Hyderabad traveling in a truck from his far-flung home town.
Muhammad Ikram s/o Malik Abdul Rasheed 12, who is a Class-V student from Ganor in Balakot, desperately wants to meet his paternal grand parents.
He was on his way to school on the fateful day of October 8 when quake struck the area. Ikram has five siblings and his mother has died. His grandparents are alive and he wants to know about them.
The truck driver after reaching to Hyderabad brought Muhammad Ikram to the office of Khidmat-e-Khalq Foundation.
Indian relief supplies arrive in Pakistan
ISLAMABAD: Joining the relief efforts for earthquake victims in Pakistan, an Indian cargo plane carrying the first consignment of 25 tones of relief supplies arrived in Islamabad early on Wednesday.
An aircraft loaded with 15,000 blankets, 50 tents, plastic sheets, mattresses, food items and a variety of medicines and medical supplies landed at the airport at 2.45 am, Indian embassy sources said.
Indian High Commissioner to the country Shiv Shankar Menon and senior Indian diplomats formally received the relief supplies and handed it over to Pakistani officials.
It was the first Indian relief aircraft to land since the 1971 Indo-Pak war.
Relief effort paced up for Kashmir quake survivors
MUZAFFARABAD: Medicine and food flowed into areas of northern Pakistan on Wednesday as rescue operations in the devastating Kashmir earthquake increasingly became a relief mission for those who survived.
At daybreak, six huge trucks and three large vans belonging to Pakistan's largest private trust, the Edhi Foundation, arrived in worst-hit Muzaffarabad, the capital of Azad Kashmir, laden with relief supplies.
But witnesses saw very little rescue work going on in the city of about 70,000 people, and there were no reports of rescuers finding any signs of life in the rubble.
Local officials estimate the quake at 7.6 magnitudes the strongest to hit the region in a century may have claimed up to 40,000 lives.
Hopes fade for survivors
Scuffles as limited aid finally reaches Muzaffarabad; rains hamper relief efforts; UN warns of outbreak of water-borne diseases
MUZAFFARABAD: Three days after the devastating earthquake, relief efforts remained chaotic on Tuesday despite huge aid pledges and UN officials said hopes were fading for those trapped in flattened towns and villages.
Little emergency supplies have reached desperate survivors due to blocked roads and shortages of aircraft, particularly helicopters. Some of the hardest-hit areas received their first aid on Tuesday as more helicopters joined the operation, but flights had to be halted for several hours due to torrential rains and hailstorms that added to the misery on the ground.
Huddling under bits of plastic, survivors in quake-hit Muzaffarabad faced fresh heartbreak on Tuesday as torrential rain halted aid efforts hours after they got into gear. Helicopters were forced to stop their mercy flights bringing aid to the Azad Kashmir capital and evacuating the worst of the injured from Saturday?s 7.6-magnitude quake to hospitals in Islamabad, officials said.
Soldiers temporarily gave up the grim task of gathering corpses from the streets, while private relief groups halted the distribution of food, blankets, clothing and water to victims of the devastation.
Officials in the worst-hit areas of Azad Kashmir and North West Frontier Province say the disaster may have claimed up to 40,000 lives. "Things are improving, but in the areas rescue teams have not yet been able to reach hope basically is fading," said the official who did not want to be identified.
"It?s getting close to 72 hours and those who are not pulled out by tomorrow (Wednesday), the chances of survival is very much reduced." Medical experts say an unhurt man can last three days without water and a woman four days, although in such disasters there are often stories of miraculous survival.
UN officials estimate the quake has left up to a million people homeless and threatened by disease in Pakistan, while 3 million need assistance, many of them children. Survivors from remote towns and villages said the only aid they had seen had been on television. "There are bodies everywhere and those who are injured don?t have a drop of water," said Nasar Ahmad, carrying his injured young niece on his back into Muzaffarabad.
Tens of thousands have been forced to camp out on chilly autumn nights, sometimes in driving rain, surrounded by decaying bodies and broken sewerage systems. Some citizens of once picturesque Muzaffarabad, where the smell of decaying bodies hangs over much of the city, have had enough and thousands are leaving for the safer lowlands. Many on both sides of the Line of Control are frantically waiting to hear if their relatives on the other side survived.
The United Nations warned of risks of cholera and pneumonia and Muzaffarabad?s health director Khawaja Shabbir said malaria and other diseases were already breaking out, with hospitals wrecked and many doctors dead. "We?re helpless in handling it on our own as right now we don?t have a single hospital left in Muzaffarabad, no medicine, no paramedic staff, nothing," he said.
Medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) warned on Tuesday there was a risk of an epidemic of water-borne disease in Muzaffarabad. The Paris-based aid group?s chief in Islamabad, Isabelle Simpson, said water supplies could become contaminated because of quake damage, "which is why we worry that that could lead then to outbreaks of other water-borne diseases". "Especially as very few people have shelter up there, they?re crowding into homes and camp-type situations, so there?s a lot of potential for health risks," she told AFP.
US Chinook helicopters had been landing at regular intervals at the University Stadium in the centre of the rubble-reduced Muzaffarabad. At what is left of Shaukat Line Army Base, they brought supplies, mainly wheat but also lentils, biscuits, cooking oil, sugar and tents. Many private organisations from throughout Pakistan were sending in truckloads of items such as water, mattresses, tents and medical supplies which were being distributed on the roadside.
Scuffles broke out among survivors as limited aid efforts finally got under way. The short-lived fighting broke out as hundreds of people who have taken refuge at a stadium scrambled for supplies of milk and biscuits being thrown down to them by police atop a van.
Later, police were pushed and shoved after they ran out of blankets they were distributing to families with babies. "There have been some scuffles and some fighting but we are sorting this out," Assistant Superintendent of Police Naeem Rashid told AFP. "When there is more supply things will go smoother."
Many people were still digging through the rubble on Tuesday in search of the bodies of family members, few believe anyone is still alive under the hills of horror that were once their homes. In a grim reminder of the scale of the destruction, bodies lined the streets wrapped in blankets and buzzing with flies as soldiers wearing face masks and gloves started the noxious task of gathering them for burial.
In the alleys of the main Medina market, once the bustling centre of the city but now a stomach-heaving mass of rotting food, decaying meat and ruined shops and stalls, the soldiers stumbled over bricks and became entangled in a spaghetti of broken cables as they carried the bodies on charpoys.
Traders at the market, meanwhile, complained that their shops had been looted by "outsiders"-non-Kashmiris-who had taken advantage of the turmoil to run off with whatever goods survived the earthquake. "I ran a communications shop," said Shaheen Iqbal. "All the mobiles that were not damaged were stolen. I am left with nothing." ?Agencies
Mohammad Ali Khan adds from Peshawar: The official death toll from the earthquake in the NWFP reached 4,748 on Tuesday with 8,970 reported injured, however, the provincial government fears thousands of more deaths in the days to come.
Briefing newsmen about the latest reports and ongoing rescue operations in the worst-hit earthquake areas of the province, provincial Information Minister Asif Iqbal Daudzai said the officially claimed death toll comprises only those, who were properly reported by the concerned police stations.
He explained that as a large portion of Mansehra, Battagram, Shangla, Abbottabad, Kohistan and Swat districts are still inaccessible owing to bad weather and limited resources, the death toll there could be higher than estimates.
District-wise reported deaths and injuries till Tuesday were 3,000 deaths and 3,005 injuries in Mansehra district, 800 deaths and 4,500 injuries in Battagram, 289 deaths and 327 injuries in Shangla, 515 deaths and 830 injuries in Abbottabad, six deaths and 69 injuries in Swat, three deaths and nine injuries in Peshawar, three deaths and 20 injuries in Buner, 22 injuries in Charsadda, one death and 25 injuries in Mardan and two injuries in district Nowshera.
The minister said relief operations in worst-hit areas like Balakot, Battal, Garhi Habibullah, Pattan, Ogi, Kaghan and Kui were in progress, adding total 15 dispatches of relief goods and medicines had so far taken place through four helicopters available to the provincial government.
He informed the provincial government was facing acute shortage of tents and it had taken up the matter with the federal government for provision of tents in large quantity.
?Five children rescued in Balakot
BALAKOT: Five children have been pulled out alive by a French rescue team from the wreckage of a school here, the team leader said on Tuesday, wrapping up rescue efforts at the site.
"Our rescue work here is finished. The phase of bulldozing and sanitising these areas is going to start," Colonel Jean-Jacques Mornat of the France?s Civil Security told AFP. "Since 1:00 pm on Monday we have brought out five children alive: three little boys at the end of the afternoon, another in the evening and a little girl at 4:00am this morning," he said.
Asked if there was any chance of finding more survivors, Mornat replied: "No, there is no hope." He said that as far as he was aware no other foreign rescue teams had found any other survivors in the last 24 hours in devastated Balakot, the once scenic gateway town to the Kaghan valley tourist area. Residents say hundreds of children were trapped in at least three schools that collapsed when the quake flattened much of the region.
Rawalakot: city of the homeless
RAWALAKOT: Saturday?s devastating earthquake has hit the residents of Azad Kashmir in many ways. Unlike Muzzafarabad and Bagh districts, the disaster has stolen shelter virtually from every single inhabitant of Rawalakot city.
Named by a British traveller in the late 19th century as the Pearly Valley, Rawalakot city does not seem to wear the look of a devastated place at the outset. However, the destruction is not as dramatic and obvious as it is in Muzaffarabad district or elsewhere in northern Pakistan. But a visit to the city centre and the residential areas testifies that the tremors were as deadly as they could be, regardless of the fact that the impact came in a different shape.
The concrete-and-brick buildings are still standing but are unliveable. There is no stench from the decaying bodies buried in the rubble but the entire district population, like most of the disaster-hit areas, has become homeless. Those rendered shelterless are sleeping in the courtyard of their own homes. The people here tremble with fear just to consider entering after the dark the structure once called their home.
Those who survived the earthquake and over 200 aftershocks, estimate some 300 dead in the city with 200 bodies evacuated manually while the death toll is likely to be alarmingly higher in the district.
The disaster has hit northern Pakistan in many ways. The destruction in Rawlakot is not so compact that photographs can be splashed in newspapers. The death toll in the city also does not make sensational headlines. Rawalakot was home to over 50,000 people.
People living on the hill slopes with their rooftops plastered with mud where grass has grown over the weeks could not withstand the 7.8 Richter scale jolts. Even on day four, the dead are still buried in the rubble but the reporters and relief teams could not see the damage overhead from the car windows while driving on the road.
To see this damage they have to scale the mighty mountains, slope by slope. The district?s 475,000 inhabitants live on these slippery slopes, some of which are now slipping with landsides. The News surveyed various villages on the mountain slopes to verify the estimate. Heavy rains with frosty winds Tuesday revisited the disaster zone. Nature would have been stunned to see the victims still lying helplessly under the sky with no assistance from the world.
Since Monday, the youth from various villages living in the open for days have descended on Lehtrar Road. The shelter-less, hungry youth are not burning vehicles in rage but stopping them and respectfully explaining their agony and seeking modest help. Waqar from Hajira union council told The News, "They don?t believe us or advise us to go to Muzzafarabad or Rawalpindi."
Be it Rawalakot city or district, everywhere the demand is the same, tents. The night brings cold and the day brings in rain. The food was destroyed with the homes and in most cases the kitchen normally separated from the main residential block, was the first to collapse.
Sami-ul-Haq, a villager from Rawalakot, said, "We put stacks of grass around our two nephews and also some beneath their beds on the floor thinking that this may save them from cold."
The district and city population alike needs blankets, warm clothes, flour, rice, sugar and tea. Most people The News spoke to said they would exhaust their stock in a day or two as they have already started rationing the food. Remember, unlike other months, they are fasting which means consuming less food than normal.
The dilapidated and cracked roads to Rawalakot were finally opened Monday evening and now they are back to life. The countrymen are keeping their tradition of generously helping the brethren in need. The relief goods, however, are focused on the cities while the devastated but scattered villages still are not a priority of the local donors. Like media teams and foreign aid agencies, they also tend to underestimate, if not ignore, the population waiting on the mountain slopes starting from Tahian and Paniola to Kel and Chikothi.
The CMH, again the city?s lone medical facility, was the first victim of Saturday morning tremors leaving over 100 buried in the rubble. Hussain Shaheed Government Degree College makes a good news photo with its crumbled blocks and collapsed roof. The collapse of the building claimed seven lives, at the least. The government employees housing area, Jinnah Private Hospital, Ayaz Market, district courts and Kasai Gali have been razed to the ground.
Doctors are desperately needed here. Until Tuesday?s heavy rainfall, the injured were hospitalised in the tents pegged in the college ground but without considerable medical assistance. Again, the medical staff is not equipped to do more than inject antibiotics and do simple wound dressing.
Sardar Abid, former head of Pearl Valley Development Authority who provided his still-standing hotel premises to the sick, says, "I have brought these patients under this roof during the rain but they are without proper treatment." He said they are renting the local passenger vans to transport patients to Rawalpindi and Islamabad in which they have to sit like normal persons and suffer the pains. "But that is the best we can do in the given circumstance at least as long the international or national medical relief supplies don?t reach us," he says.
Some sympathizers have sent medicines to the city?s only 25-patient makeshift dispensary or medical camp. Here the patients are lying with spine fractures, head injuries, limb fracture etc but they are only getting painkillers and first aid treatment. The city has no blood bank as the infrastructure is not intact any moreto keep the donated blood fresh.
Sardar Khalid Ibrahim and his elder brother Javaid Ibrahim are consoling the people besides mobilizing the donors for quick relief assistance. The army, however, is not visible with the excavation or medical assistance activities. The college ground helipad has also not been generating much activity in terms of transporting the sick and wounded to Rawalpindi.
The government structure which became dysfunctional after the earthquake on Saturday is still not operating even at its routine pace. The commissioner?s wife died in the house collapse while the deputy commissioner lost his daughter the same way. The SP office partially collapsed.
Four days after the disaster, only the police is back in the streets, but not equipped to make any difference. Although power supply is partly restored, the shaken and fractured city markets are completely shut down. Grocery shops, vegetable vendors and PCOs are open for business. Restaurants are short of food with more customers in the queue.
Two Army divisions deployed in affected areas
ISLAMABAD: Two divisions of the Pakistan Army ? one each in Azad Kashmir and Mansehra ? have been deployed to accelerate the pace of rescue and relief activities in quake-hit areas, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said on Tuesday.
"In addition, several brigades are also being deployed in earthquake affected areas to carry out relief work and provide food and other support to the people," the prime minister said, while addressing a press conference at the Prime Minister Secretariat.
Minister of State for Culture, Sports and Youth Affairs Senator Muhammad Ali Durrani, Chairman Prime Minister?s Inspection Commission and Federal Relief Commissioner Maj-Gen Farooq Ahmed and Director-General ISPR Maj-Gen Shaukat Sultan were also present.
The prime minister said the purpose of major redeployment of troops is to spread them in each and every affected area, including the remote villages. He added that 100 or so troops would be stationed after every 10 kilometres to reach out to all the affected people.
He said that approximately 23,000 people had died and 51,000 injured. "These include 432 Army personnel, who lost their lives and 709 injured," he added. The prime minister, controlling his emotions while detailing the casualties, said the number of casualties might be higher as reports are gathered from remote areas. "We are in phase of damage assessment and it could increase," he added.
Asked about estimates of the people rendered homeless, he said, according to initial estimates, about 2.5 million people have become homeless and provision of shelter for them is one of the major challenges ahead.
Giving details of donations from international and local community, the prime minister said the foreign financial pledges have crossed $300 million and more is pledged while domestic contributions were to the tune of Rs 600 million in first two days. "Our top most priority for the financial assistance is food, tents, blankets, medicines and medical equipment," he said, thanking people of Pakistan and the international community for overwhelming response to the appeal for assistance.
The prime minister said in addition to the existing hospitals, 14 field hospitals have also been established in the affected areas. "These include six by the Army and eight by foreign medical teams while six more field hospitals are being set up in these areas," he said, adding that in addition 11 foreign medical teams are also assisting in various areas.
The prime minister said the Health Ministry has prepared a plan for spray in the affected-areas after retrieval and burial of bodies. He added the federal government on Tuesday released Rs 500 million each for Azad Kashmir and NWFP governments to enable them expedite relief activities.
He said the relief commissioners are also being appointed in the four provinces and Azad Kashmir to coordinate the relief and reconstruction activities. He said the government, through active cooperation of the people, is mobilising all resources to reach out to the victims.
Shaukat said that major roads in the affected areas, including Kohala-Muzaffarabad and Mansehra-Muzaffarabad, had opened. Similarly, he said, access to Balakot has also been restored and work is in progress to rehabilitate other roads. "Now dozens of trucks are going to the affected areas daily to distribute relief goods there," he added.
The prime minister said that several satellite PCOs would become operational in the affected areas on Wednesday and a number of multinational companies had offered provision of satellite phones for use in the affected areas. He said 35 to 40 helicopters are engaged in the operation. "Now that the roads to major cities have been restored, the helicopters would be used to carry relief goods to the inaccessible and remote areas," he said.
About reconstruction phase, the prime minister said in the short-term there would be temporary repair and opening up of the areas followed by medium-term plans of rehabilitation of roads, government buildings, schools, hospitals, powers and water supplies and telecom services.
About MMA President Qazi Hussain Ahmed?s offer of cooperation, he appreciated the gesture and welcomed offers of all the opposition parties. Regarding the Indian offer for financial assistance, he said Pakistan has no problem in accepting the offer.
APP adds: Aziz said 15 specialised international rescue teams and 11 foreign medical teams were operating in different affected areas. He said that Muzaffarabad and Balakot were the worst hit major cities, while hundreds of villages were destroyed. He said the Army had recovered 40 children from the collapsed school building in Balakot and they have been shifted to the field hospital.
Responding to a question, he said there was no need for redeployment of troops from their positions along the Pak-Afghan border, as there were plenty of Army personnel in the affected areas. He said the major damage occurred in Muzaffarabad, Bagh and Rawalakot in Azad Kashmir and in Balakot, Mansehra, Batgram and Abbottabad in the NWFP. "Devastation is at its extreme in Balakot, large parts of Muzaffarabad have been severely damaged while settlements and villages around these towns have also been severely hit."
The prime minister said the relief and later reconstruction and rehabilitation works are "mammoth challenges" facing the government. "But we are determined and moving ahead with full vigour and the entire government machinery is working round the clock to help the people," he added.
Shaukat said the rehabilitation of the children who lost their parents was a major task ahead and measures were being taken in this regard. "The trauma aspect of the affected people is very serious for those who lost loved ones and their whole life?s earnings, but we will share their pain and sorrow," he said.
NSC reviews rescue, relief work today
ISLAMABAD: The National Security Council (NSC) will meet here today with one-point agenda of reviewing and gearing up rescue, relief and rehabilitation operations in quake affected areas.
President Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) Qazi Hussain Ahmed, however, demanded of the government to convene an all-parties conference to firm up a national strategy to meet the challenge. The president convened the NSC meeting, though leader of the opposition In the National Assembly Maulana Fazlur Rehman and NWFP Chief Minister Akram Durrani have declined to attend the NSC meetings held so far. This time, however, they might attend the meeting in the national interest if sanity prevails.
The NSC, the highest decision and policy-making non-constitutional body headed by the president, includes the prime minister, chief ministers of the provinces, leader of the opposition in the National Assembly, Senate chairman, National Assembly speaker, parliamentary leader of the ruling party in the National Assembly and services chiefs as its members.
The convening of the NSC meeting reflects the intent of the president and the Pakistan Muslim League government to put in the best efforts for speeding up rescue, relief and rehabilitation operations in the quake-hit areas. Though the response was rapid from the government agencies and departments, it all lacks required equipment to carry out rescue work and as a result thousands of people are still buried under the rubble.
It is more than a pity that the Capital Development Authority has been spending billions of rupees on unnecessary projects but does not have necessary equipment required for rescue operations what to talk about other agencies and government departments in different cities. In this background, it is understood, the NSC will chalk out a strategy for the future, provide relief to the relatives of the quake victims and rebuild infrastructure.
The rescue, relief and rehabilitation work, as one senior official said, would be going on for several weeks and months. More and more private organisations and leaders of the civilian society, besides the unmatched efforts put in by Pakistan Army and the government agencies, are forthcoming to the cause.
The demand of Qazi Hussain Ahmed, however, makes sense, as the entire opposition is also involved in rescue, relief and rehabilitation efforts and has rose to the occasion. The convening of an all-parties conference will surely benefit the nation, as it will put an end to political bickering and polarisation at this critical juncture.
APP adds: President Gen Pervez Musharraf on Tuesday said large scale rescue and relief efforts were underway in Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Hazara division of NWFP to alleviate sufferings of earthquake victims.
The president converted a previously scheduled meeting on water issues into a review meeting of the latest rescue and relief operations in the quake-damaged areas. The prime minister also attended the meeting.
The president informed the participants about the international assistance being extended in the wake of catastrophic earthquake, which has claimed thousands of lives at several places. He said medical teams, comprising doctors and surgeons from the Army and civilian hospitals are working round the clock to provide treatment to the injured. "Tents are being transported to provide shelter to the affected people and food supplies are also on way to the areas."
All the four governors and the chief ministers of Sindh, Balochistan and NWFP also attended the meeting. The Punjab chief minister was represented by the provincial law minister. Federal Relief Commissioner Maj-Gen Muhammad Farooq briefed the president about the unprecedented rescue and relief operations underway in the affected areas.
Tremors spread panic in Karachi
KARACHI: Panic spread in Clifton and Defence localities of the city after tremors were felt there in the late on Tuesday night.
Panicky residents, particularly those residing in multi-storey apartment buildings, came out of their homes, when they felt jolts for a few seconds at 12:40am. Dr Quamar-Uz-Zaman Chaudhary, the Director-General Metrological Department, confirming the earthquake, told The News that there were very slight jolts measuring 4 on the Richter scale. "The earthquake was local and minor in nature," that could not be dangerous, he said.
The Peshawar Met Office told The News that the epicentre of the tremors was somewhere in coastal belt near Karachi, but stressed it was a "local activity" that could continue. "However, no major jolt is expected," said a Met official.
Indo-Pak nukes safe from quake
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and India said their nuclear warheads and installations were safe after the weekend?s devastating earthquake which caused major casualties on both sides. "There is no danger to our nuclear installations and weapons from earthquakes," said Pakistan military spokesman major general Shaukat Sultan. "They are fully safe."
Sultan said he was not immediately able to say up to what intensity the Pakistani nuclear facilities could withstand earthquakes and aftershocks. Indian government officials declined to comment on the status of their atomic bombs but Indian defence experts said no warheads are deployed anywhere near the border with Pakistan.
Separately, the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited said they had "not received any reports of any damage to any of our facilities". India?s 15 nuclear power plants also withstood a giant quake in Gujarat in January 2001, the corporation?s website said.
Up to 40,000 people are thought to have died in Pakistan from the weekend?s monster quake, many of them in Azad Kashmir, and a further 950 have been confirmed dead in India?s held sector of the region.
The quake also caused massive structural damage, wiping out whole villages and laying waste to some 75 percent of Muzaffarabad, capital of Azad Kashmir. Pervez Hoodbhoy, professor of physics at Islamabad?s Quaid-i-Azam University, said the quake posed more danger to nuclear power plants than the nuclear weapons.
Pakistan?s main uranium enrichment facility in Kahuta, near Islamabad, is located about 75 kilometres southeast of Kashmir. "It will not be a military installation, the danger could be at Chashma," said Hoodbhoy, also an activist against nuclear weapons, refering to a Chinese-built facility some 400 kilometres southwest of Islamabad.
"Chashma is in a seismic zone and if an earthquake is centred close to it (the nuclear power plant) there could be loss of radioactive material and a Chernobyl like situation," Hoodbhoy said.
CHILDREN ARE SCREAMING AS THEY ARE OPERATIONS FORMED AND NO PAINKILLERS, THESE CHILDREN I HEARD SCREAMING LAST NIGHT, THEY VOICES HAVE BEEN HAUNTING ME SINCE AND THE SCENE OF A CHILD IN SO MUCH PAIN, MADE ME WANT TO CRY!!!
WHY HAS ALLAH DONE THIS TO OUR PAKISTAN, WHAT HAVE WE DONE THAT IS SO BAD THAT PAKISTAN HAS NOW GONE BACK 30 YEARS!!
thats good mashallah, hope he and everyone else is successful in making a difference to the sad situation...
I DON'T NEED TO LOCATE HIM AS I KNOW HIS GOT SO MANY DUA ON HIM AND HE'LL BE FINE,,,,
BUT I AM TRYING TO CONTACT ISLAMIC RELIEF SO I CAN GO AND WORK THERE, IF I CAN'T THEN, I'M GONNA SPONSOR A CHILD INSTEAD!!!
I have heard of people who cannot locate entire families... It is so so sad and depressing that I dont want to do anything except pray and donate. Inshallah the souls of those who have died will go to Jannat and the survivors will be found and treated - Ameen.
I LIKED WHAT ISLAMIC CHANNEL DID LAST NIGHT, THEY RAISED 1 MILLION POUNDS AND YOUNG CHILDREN DONATED THEIR POCKET MONEY,, MASHALLAH IT WAS GOOD!!
I REALLY WANT TO GO TO PAKISTAN TO HELP AS WORKER AS THEY WERE SAYING THAT SO MANY PEOPLE HAVE DIED, VILLAGES WIPED OUT THAT THEY IS NOT ENOUGH PEOPLE AROUND TO BURY THE DEAD AND THEY HAVE ALSO RUN OUT OF THE WHITE CLOTH FOR BURIAL!!
MY LITTLE BROTHER KAMI WENT TO PAKISTAN FOR NO REASON ON THURSDAY, HE WENT LIKE HE ALREADY KNEW WHAT WAS GOING TO HAPPEN, I THINK ALLAH DOES GIVE SIGNS TO THE RELIGIOUS ONES THAT SOMETHING WILL HAPPEN!!!
BUT I AM UNABLE TO LOCATE HIM, BUT I KNOW MY BROTHER KAMI IS GOING TO BE OK AND IS MOST PROBABLY BURYING BODIES AND PRAYING FOR THEM!!
I PRAY THIS RAMZAN ALLAH FORGIVES US MUSLIMS FOR ALL THE SINS WE COMMIT, ALLAH HAS SHOWED US HIS POWER SO TIMES WITHIN THE LAST FEW MONTHS THEN WHY DO PEOPLE STILL DENY HIM!!!