Pakistan Earthquake 2005

Earthquake victims in Lahore leave for AJK and NWFP

Earthquake victims living in Lahore on the Punjab government’s invitation left for their native areas on Monday.

Saba Sadiq, adviser to the Punjab chief minister on social welfare, saw the 85 families off on the chief minister’s behalf at the Social Welfare Complex.

She also addressed the farewell ceremony, saying the Punjab had again played a role in helping people and had hosted the victims for four months. She said each family was also given three months of rations including flour, rice, oil, sugar, tea, milk powder, grains, pulses and spices. She also said every victim was given Rs 1,000.

Balakot to be relocated

Pakistan is to rebuild the city of Balakot in a completely new location after it was razed by last year’s Kashmir earthquake.

The city, home to 300,000 people before the quake, will be rebuilt in a safer location to modern design standards.

Pakistan also announced that it will shift focus from relief efforts to begin the rebuilding of devastated towns and villages on 7 April.

More than 73,000 people died and three million lost homes in the earthquake.

Balakot is currently located on a major geological fault line about 200km (120 miles) north of the country’s capital, Islamabad.

Insurance Companies received 15 claims against quake damage

Insurance companies in Islamabad have so far received 15 claims against damage caused by the October 8 earthquake to residential buildings, sources told Daily Times.

“About 15 or 16 insurance claims have been received in Islamabad,” said the general manger of a leading insurance firm on condition of anonymity.

The quake, measuring 7.6 on the Richter scale hit Pakistan on October 8, causing widespread damage. Its epicentre was located 100 kilometres north of Islamabad. According to sources in the insurance industry, each claim varies between Rs 200,000 to Rs 500,000 – depending on the intensity of the damage to the buildings mentioned in the claims.

US troops to leave quake zone from March 21

American troops engaged in relief and reconstruction activities in Pakistan’s earthquake-hit areas will begin leaving on March 21.

Quoting US sources, Geo television reported that the withdrawal of American troops will conclude in a few weeks. More than 1,000 troops reportedly arrived in Pakistan after the October 8 earthquake. According to Geo TV, Gen Peter Pace, the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee, will visit Pakistan next week for talks on security issues.

The US has already handed over its field hospitals to the Pakistani government and the remaining will be handed over to non-government organisations, the channel said.

Return of quake survivors from tent villages begins

The Earthquake-affected people have started returning to their native areas from tent villages run by government and non-governmental organisations in different parts of the five affected districts of the NWFP.

Reports reaching from the quake-affected areas say people in camps at various localities were seen packing their belongings and heading towards their native villages in line with the NWFP government’s decision of closing all camps by March 31. The repatriation would be completed in three phases.

Over a hundred families, according to reports, left for their villages located on the hilltops on the first day of starting the process from a government camp in main Battagram.

Mobile banks to function in quake-hit areas

The ministry of finance and commercial banks have agreed that mobile bank teams will operate in the designated earthquake affected areas so that affectees are ensured speedy disbursement of money, with which they can start reconstruction efforts.

No fee or charge would be realized from affectees for opening and operating accounts. The condition of maintaining minimum balance will also not apply to the accounts of earthquake affectees in AJK and the NWFP.

Monsoon a new threat to quake survivors

The approaching monsoon season poses new dangers of flooding for Hattian Bala village, officials said on Thursday.

The huge pile of earth and boul ders has blocked two streams, forming dams that could collapse in a rainy season. The government has determined that the dam collapse would inundate Hattian Bala and destroy a nearby bridge, Lt Col Zulfiqar Ali Janjua, an army engineer, said.

Kingsley to appear in Pakistan earthquake documentary

Ben Kingsley will be featured in a documentary about the devastation caused by last year’s earthquake in Pakistan that flattened entire villages in the country’s portion of Kashmir and surrounding areas.

The documentary by director Chip Duncan is being made in partnership with Relief International, a Los Angeles-based aid organization. Pakistan’s government also supported the project.

Kingsley, who spent five days in the Pakistan-controlled portion of Kashmir, told reporters in Islamabad on Wednesday that he would like to eliminate the phrase, “We must respect our differences,” from the “lazy vocabulary of political rhetoric.”

Earthquake survivor Siamese twins died

Conjoined female twins born to a 9 October earthquake survivor from Pakistan-administered Kashmir, died on Sunday, doctors say.

The twins were joined from chest to abdomen at the rib cage and shared a heart and liver.

Their mother, Shazia, gave birth to triplets on Saturday. A boy, born with the twins, is reported to be well.

Shazia and her husband had walked for hours from their quake-hit village to a hospital in Neelum valley on Friday.

The couple were then flown in an army helicopter to a hospital in the capital of Pakistan-administered Kashmir, Muzaffarabad, where the triplets were born on Saturday morning.

Photos from Quake Zone

Poster in Balakot: How to stop lung diseases

Still smiling

Source: Karachi Photo Blog