ISLAMABAD, March 20: Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz on Monday launched the “Support a family” programme to help quake-affected people and reaffirmed that the government will use all resources to help their speedy return to normal life.

“The rehabilitation is a long process but we are with you in these difficult times as the entire nation has risen to the challenge posed by the Oct 8 earthquake,” he told widows and orphans being treated at the Institute of Handicaps.

An initiative of the Punjab government, the programme to support the quake-hit families, is being implemented by Disaster Relief Management Society (DRMS).

PML President Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, who is chairman of the DRMS, was also present.

Mr Aziz distributed ‘pass books’ among families which will allow them to draw Rs6,000 a month for a year from an authorised institution.

The prime minister said the worst calamity in the country’s history destroyed in seconds what had taken years to build in Azad Kashmir and parts of the NWFP province.

“We are all proud of the unity and response shown by the people from Khyber to Karachi to face this gigantic challenge,” he added.

Mr Aziz recalled that some 700 people were brought to hospitals in Rawalpindi and Islamabad the day the disaster struck and said that doctors, nurses and paramedics worked tirelessly to save lives.

He said he was equally grateful to the international community which extended all-out support to the Pakistan government in its relief and reconstruction efforts.

Mr Aziz said Pakistan had been offered $6.5 billion in loans and grants at the donors’ conference in November, but added that the government would not take expensive loans to avoid adding to the country’s debt burden.—APP