WASHINGTON, Oct 11: Pakistani-American doctor Hussain Malik was making his early morning rounds at a Pennsylvanian hospital when news of last weekend’s devastating earthquake in his native land reached him, triggering a campaign to ease the pain of victims.

The president of the 10,000-member Association of Pakistani Physicians of North America consulted with his colleagues and decided to dispatch a team of medical specialists to Pakistan.

While the team of pediatricians, trauma and plastic surgeons and other medical specialists is hurriedly being assembled, the association is collecting funds to meet the immediate needs of the victims: tents, blankets and food.

“We are deeply saddened by this disaster and the association is doing all it can to help the victims,” said Malik, who heads one of the most distinguished groups among the 200,000 Pakistani-Americans.

As Islamabad agreed in a rare move on Monday to receive relief supplies from India amid easing tensions between the nuclear-armed rivals, Malik’s association also accepted cash and other aid pledged for the earthquake victims by the 38,000 members of the American Association of Physicians of Indian origin.

“This is very humbling,” he said.

The Indian-American doctors would share with their Pakistani counterparts the experience derived from a 2001 earthquake in India’s Gujarat state that left about 25,000 dead.

Malik’s association is among dozens of Pakistani-American groups in the United States stepping up the plate to help victims of Saturday’s earthquake.

“The earthquake tragedy has left all Pakistanis around the world in a state of shock,” said Syed Asif Alam, head of the Association of Pakistani Professionals in the United States.

“There are so many children who are without a family, so many families without a home. Let us help rebuild,” he said. —AFP