ISLAMABAD, Nov 3: Survivors of last month’s massive earthquake in Azad Kashmir and NWFP will spend Eidul Fitr in the shadow of gloom despite the presence of the country’s top leadership and a large number of Eid gift-bearing people from across the country.
President General Pervez Musharraf, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and ruling Pakistan Muslim League chief Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain will travel to Muzaffarabad, Balakot and other quake-hit areas to console with the survivors on Friday, as will the MMA’s chief Qazi Hussain Ahmed and ARD’s chairman Makhdoom Amin Fahim.
But only a small number of residents will be at hand in the quake-hit zones, because the majority of them have fled due to the fast approaching winter and migrated to bigger cities such as Abbottabad, Mansehra, Haripur, Rawalpindi, Islamabad and other places.
On Eid Day the visitors will probably outnumber the local people in Muzaffarabad, Balakot, Rawlakot, Bagh and Batagaram most of whom had either perished in the devastating quake or had fled their homes in fear and despair. Many more are still taking care of the injured members of their family.
The remaining survivors will offer their prayers over the rubble of their homes and in open fields.
All the national leaders will stay in the AJK capital for quite some time and distribute Eid gifts among the survivors.
According to reports, Qazi Hussain Ahmed will be leading both the Eid prayers and the Friday congregation on the grounds of AJK University’s partially destroyed campuses. This will probably be the largest gathering of the faithful during the Eid festival in Muzaffarabad.
Makhdoom Amin Fahim and other ARD leaders will reach Balakot the most devastated town of all the quake-hit areas and observe Eid there.
The nation will also express solidarity with the unfortunate victims of the earthquake by observing this Eid with austerity and simplicity.
Various religious, political and social organisations and individuals have arranged hundreds of thousands of Eid gifts for the affected people who were forced to live under appalling conditions.
Eyewitnesses accounts suggest that a good number of people from across the country will descend on the quake-hit areas of Azad Kashmir and NWFP to share the grief of their fellow brethren.
They have prepared Eid gifts in huge quantities and will distribute the same mostly among local women and children.
TURKISH WOMEN: A delegation of visiting Turkish women distributed jewellery on Thursday which they were handed over by their compatriots in Turkey as a gesture of goodwill and solidarity for the quake-hit people of AJK and NWFP.
ISLAMABAD, Nov 3: Survivors of last month’s massive earthquake in Azad Kashmir and NWFP will spend Eidul Fitr in the shadow of gloom despite the presence of the country’s top leadership and a large number of Eid gift-bearing people from across the country.
