“Feeling the tremor, I ran to my mother’s room and tried opening the door. It was locked. Not knowing what to do, I rushed to the terrace to break the window and in the mean time saw one of the Margalla Tower coming down. It was like what we see in films when they show a building being demolished by a dynamite, all crumbling down to the ground,” Hadya, 21, an MBA student recalls the scene from her fourth floor apartment terrace in F-10 Markaz.
Many more like her have survived to tell the gloomy stories of agony and pain which dawned in a shape of apocalypse on the 8th of October in Islamabad and rest of the North. Each apartment of the ill-fated Margalla Towers had lost a dear one whereas many did not even get this opportunity and vanished all together — gone in the blink of an eye. This was Islamabad for you. Islamabad, the beautiful!
It is so strange that unless you see it with your own eyes, the catastrophe doesn’t hit you that hard. Living in the adjacent apartment building in F-10, people who lost their lives in the Margalla Towers apartment building were known to me in some way or the other. They were colleagues, friends, my kids’ friends or part of the Islamabad larger social circle.
They say pain and sorrow bring people together. Within minutes of the collapse of the tower, people of the area came running to the site holding shovels, spades or whatever they could grab or land their hands on and started excavating amid screams of help.
Young college students in the nearby F-10 and G-10 sectors were the first ones to arrive. Gathered around the area, they immediately formed a human chain to remove stones from the rubble and throw them away. The hailstorm followed by heavy rain added to the misery of the people. Despite all this, the rescue work continued under floodlights and the teams successfully extracted people alive from under the rubble.
Today, what prides us as Pakistanis, is the unity. The sight was a pleasant surprise as one could feel the spirit alive in Islooites, known to be snobs as compared to people of the rest of Pakistan. Today, each and every person in the capital wants to be a part of it. Everyone is contributing in his own way. People who are not doing anything are feeling left out if they don’t participate. Something that has never happened before.
Long before the maghrib azan, iftaris started pouring in at the site for the rescue workers engaged in the daunting task of finding people trapped under tons of debris and the homeless sitting out there in the open. Make shift tents in Fatima Jinnah Park were set up to accommodate the near and dear ones of the people trapped in the concrete rubble of the fallen Margalla Tower, waiting for news about their relatives — dead or alive.
The work done by the young college students is something remarkable. They helped to take the injured to the hospital. Hundreds gathered at the hospitals to donate blood. It was the youngsters who immediately took charge of the traffic. “With all the panic, we thought we needed to clear the road to make way for evacuating residents and the incoming ambulances,” Emad, a law student speaks of his friends’ teamwork. The camaraderie of school friends of trapped children, divided themselves at various hospitals checking out each and every bed at the emergency and each arriving ambulance, hoping, praying that their friend is still alive. This was the real born and bred Islamabad generation and they were united in this hour of crisis.
On the second day around iftari, it was difficult to find bread and buns at the bakeries. “People are bringing all sorts of food items to be transported to the affected areas. It is difficult for us to keep up with the demand. We are trying to arrange as many water bottles and dry foods stuffs as possible,” a grocery store owner in F-10 Markaz explained after customers complained of scarcity of bread in the market.
“We are out of cartons, sir, this begum sahib has just bought goods worth Rs73,000, to send to Azad Kashmir, we can give you the goods by noon tomorrow at the earliest,” another shop owner in F-8 Markaz was overheard.
After the first day, people realized that immediate relief efforts were not required in Islamabad but needed in other hard hit areas of the country. The domestic help in Islamabad comprises mostly people with families living in areas most affected such as Azad Kashmir, Mansera, Balakot and Abbotabad. Out of their homes and villages in search of livelihood in the capital, these are the ones who have lost everything. Every house in the capital has a story to tell.
With schools and colleges closed for three days, students are working single-mindedly, offering their services. Overnight relief camps have sprouted all over the capital and Islooites are generously donating packed eatables, medicines, blankets and money. Late in the night, one could see trucks being loaded outside people’s houses with relief goods and being sent to Muzaffarabad and other effected areas. Students who took the collection process in their hands are accompanying the relief goods trucks.
The courage with which the general public participated in the rescue work with different agencies is a source of inspiration. Everyone has conspired to build a network of trust and the message is being communicated through TV, radio, newspapers, sms, email and telephones — facilitating, informing and updating on latest developments. The help extended by the international community is also commendable. Every country of the world has chipped in one way or the other. The UN agencies have divided the work to avoid any duplication of efforts. There is complete unity amongst the bodies, whether NGOs, groups or individuals, civil society as a whole has come up as a cohesive body are making their own efforts.
Not to be left out in chipping in their contribution in the earthquake catastrophe (other than the material aid), the government and the opposition have also wowed in the National Assembly to put aside all political differences for the time being and work together for relief and rehabilitation of the victims. It is, no doubt, a rare show of solidarity in which ‘the entire nation stands united’ at this critical juncture.
Another sober decision taken by the opposition is not to observe October 12 as Black Day. It is not the time to protest or condemn political actions and keep the differences apart from the current situation.
“Feeling the tremor, I ran to my mother’s room and tried opening the door. It was locked. Not knowing what to do, I rushed to the terrace to break the window and in the mean time saw one of the Margalla Tower coming down. It was like what we see in films when they show a building being demolished by a dynamite, all crumbling down to the ground,” Hadya, 21, an MBA student recalls the scene from her fourth floor apartment terrace in F-10 Markaz.
