KARACHI: Niamat seeks C-130 to airlift relief goods
KARACHI, Oct 22: Former city nazim Niamatullah Khan, who is relief coordinator of the Al-Khidmat, has asked the government for the airlifting of relief goods, collected by his organization, by a C-130 aircraft of the air force. He pointed out that hundreds of tons of relief goods had been collected from Karachi and other parts of the country for dispatch to the quake-hit areas of the NWFP and Azad Kashmir.
He also urged PIA Chairman Tariq Kirmani to fulfil his promise of providing a cargo plane for transporting over 10,000 tents procured by the Al-Khidmat from Saudi Arabia and Dubai for quake victims.
Addressing a press conference at the JI office, Idara Noor-i-Haq, along with other office-bearers of the Al-Khidmat, here on Saturday, he recalled that a few years back, the then premier, Mian Nawaz Sharif, had also provided Jamaat-i-Islami with a C-130 for transporting relief goods to Gwadar for victims of floods in Balochistan.
Describing the October 8 quake as the ‘biggest tragedy in living memory’, Mr Khan referred to estimates by some agencies suggesting the death toll in the calamity might be 0.15-0.2 million, and said that the number of those affected might run into four million.
The former nazim said that the JI and its affiliated parties/organizations had mobilized more than 100,000 volunteers for relief and rehabilitation work.
About foreign NGOs active in the quake-hit areas, Mr Khan said that the JI would not allow widows and orphans to be lured into non-Muslims’ trap in the name of financial and other assistance. “They are Muslims and we will do our level best to prevent the foreign NGOs and missionaries from changing their faith and beliefs. The JI intends to establish a big sanctuary for quake-hit women and children in Attock and if needed, it will also establish similar sanctuaries in Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi.”
Niamatullah Khan, who has just returned from a 12-day visit to various quake-hit areas, said that Al-Khidmat and JI volunteers were engaged in all sorts of relief, rescue and rehabilitation work, besides helping the victim families bury their dead members and rehabilitate the surviving ones.
“Field hospitals have been set up by us in Balakot, Muzaffarabad and Bagh and each of them had a team of 100 specialists, paramedics and volunteers who are providing basic and advanced medical treatment to those injured in the quake. JI has also started raising tent villages in the NWFP and Kashmir.”
He said that the JI would continue to provide homeless women and children in the quake-hit areas with food, shelter, education and financial assistance until they became independent. Mr Khan appealed to the nation not to donate their zakat and fitra to the quake relief fund.—PPI
