KARACHI: Unity for progress after quake tragedy stressed
KARACHI, Nov 11: Speakers at a meeting of Hamdard Shura, Karachi chapter, urged the government to preserve and promote the national unity, solidarity and consensus, created in the wake of Oct 8th earthquake, which is a vital necessity for the progress and development of the country.
The meeting was held on the topic “The incident of Oct 8 and national unity”, under the chairmanship of Justice (Retd) Haziqul Khairi, on Thursday.
Speaking as guest speaker on the occasion, Bilquis Edhi said that the earthquake had ruined the area of 25,000kms. The work for reconstruction of houses and roads should be given to locals, she said, adding that the inhabitants of that area do not want to go anywhere else though jolts of earthquake were still being felt there.
She said that the earthquake was a great natural calamity, which caused great loss of lives. “We should give courage and fortitude to those who have been survived by the earthquake. Edhi Foundation is distributing relief goods through 1,400 trucks and shifting 12,000 to 14,000 wounded people daily to different hospitals through its 150 ambulances,” she added.
Bilquis Edhi said that army did a lot of work in the earthquake areas with exemplary zeal and enthusiasm. Similarly, the role played by the NGOs in earthquake areas was also commendable, she maintained.
She said that the Edhi Foundation had set up 12 relief centres with 400 workers, one 80-bed hospital at Muzzafarabad, 70-bed at Balakot, 40-bed at Bagh and 30-bed at Ghadi Dupatta with 40 paramedical staff.
Responding to a question raised by a participant of the meeting, she said that in the beginning there were some cases of snatching of relief goods, but now army had taken well control of it. There were many cases of infections, which needed major operations and amputation of organs that would naturally result in disability.
She made it clear that there was no death of medicines in the quake-hit areas, but medicines for epidemic diseases such as diarrhoea were badly needed.
Mrs Sadia Rashid, President Hamdard Foundation Pakistan, said that Hamdard had set up medical camps in those areas. Hamdard medical teams, comprising doctors and surgeons, had taken along a large quantity of medicines with them.
S.S. Haider, a solar energy scientist and secretary general of the National Industrial, Commercial and Educational Link, said that alpine tents should be provided to the survivors of earthquake, since those tents could bear the pressure of snowfall. The problem of electricity could be solved by providing two solar panels of 120 watts, which could provide electricity of 450 watts and that was enough for a house for 24 hours, he suggested.
Mahdi Masud, former ambassador of Pakistan and a political analyst, said that the postponement of F-16 purchase was good for the time being, however, defence planning was always based on long term, it could not be altered at once. He said that a sense of proportion be maintained in defence matters. It was not in the interest of the country that in the rehabilitation of earthquake victims, the overall economic development of the country be overlooked. Both should be done simultaneously, he emphasized.
Engineer Anwarul Haq Siddiqui suggested that a conference of engineers and architects should be organized on national level to indicate and interpret earthquake zoning. He said that disaster management service should be established on federal and provincial levels.
Qutubuddin Aziz, Ahmed Sabzwari, Gen (Retd) Ghulam Umer, Mazhar Ali, Anwar Aziz, Akhtar Gebana, Dr Amjad Ali, Prof Afaque Siddiqui, Prof Waqar Rizvi and others also spoke on the occasion.—PPI
