Earthquake in Pakistan: One Year Later

Exactly one year ago a massive and traggic earthquake hit Northern Pakistan, Kashmir, and parts of India and Afghanistan. This is a moment to simply pause, pray and ponder.

To think back on what has been done and what still needs to be done, I just compiled a quick list of some numbers of where things stand today. They make for a sobering read:

Total dead in Earthquake = 80,000 – 90,000
Estimated proportion of children amongst dead = 80 percent

Early recovery assistance pledged by international donors = US$ 255 Million
Early recovery pledges that have NOT been recieived yet = US$ 94 Million

Original estimate of long-term reconstruction costs = US$ 3.6 Billion
Current (updated) estimate of long-term reconstruction costs = US$ 4.4 Billion
Current estimated shortfall = US$ 800 Million

Total displaced by Earthquake = 3,500,000
Affectees still living in tents in camps = 35,000 – 40,000
At-risk families without permanent shelter = 60,000 – 100,000
Additional people who might need shelter this winter = 30,000 – 60,000

Estimated houses destroyed = 400,000
Estimated houses whose rebuilding has begun = 17%

On my blog – All Things Pakistan – we have been doing a series of posts remembering the tragic earthquake and highlighting all that still needs to be done. These posts also include a number of moving pictures. See: Here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here.

Adil Najam

Plane crash in Pakistan: All passengers dead

A PIA Fokker plane crashed in Pakistan today killing all 45 people on board. According to a CNN report:

Eye witnesses said the 27-year-old plane spiraled in the air as it plummeted to the ground on the outskirts of Multan, about three kilometers (two miles) from the city’s airport, two or three minutes after take-off from the eastern city of Lahore. “There was a huge explosion after the plane hit the ground,” said Mohammed Nadeem who lives near the crash site. A nearby power line also caught fire. There were no survivors … and a female flight attendant who was pulled alive from the plane’s wreckage died later in hospital.

Although, at this point, the crash is being blamed on technical sources, there is an ominous history to planes flying out of Multan and blowing up in the sky–that is how the then military rules of the country, Gen. Zia-ul-Haq, had been killed in 1988. Some are, therefore, raising eyebrows on the fact that, according to Gulf Daily News, “the passengers included two high court judges, a university vice chancellor and two military brigadiers.”

However, the more likely cause is that these are really old–and often rickety–planes. The Associated Press is already reporting the brewing controversy:

Khalid Hamza, the president of the Pakistan Airline Pilots Association, claimed the Fokkers in the PIA fleet — mostly used on less busy domestic routes — were aging and should be grounded. “I think these planes should have been grounded four, five years ago but perhaps the airline was waiting for such an accident,” [APP] quoted the airline’s deputy managing director Farooq Shah as saying that all of the planes — including the one that crashed — were airworthy, and that none of the remaining six had been grounded. Chaudhry Bashir, a PIA spokesman, said the crashed plane was inducted into the airline’s fleet in 1979. It had flown for 79,000 hours and was due to be grounded on completing 90,000 hours, he said. “No PIA plane can come on the runway before it has had a full maintenance,” he said.

The crash could put PIA’s safety record under close scrutiny. The airline has reported a number of emergency landings in recent years and in December 2004, several passengers on a domestic flight were injured when one of its jets suddenly dipped, fearing a mid-air collision with another plane. In August 1989, another PIA Fokker, with 54 people on board, went down in Pakistan’s Himalayan north on a domestic flight. The plane’s wreckage was never found.

More on this at Adil Najam’s blog ‘All Things Pakistan’ .All pictures from BBC.

Adil Najam

Pakistani crowned as ‘Funniest Man in India’

This story is a few weeks old, but since it has not made it outside India and Pakistan (and becasue it should), I thought this was the place to post this.

Yes, it is true: Indians are laughing at Pakistanis. In fact, they are laughing so hard that the ‘world largest democracy’ just voted a 40-year old Pakistani stand-up comic as the ‘Funniest Man in India.’

According to a news report at rediff.com:

Pakistan’s Rauf Lala has been voted by an Indian audience as the winner of Star One’s popular comedy show, The Great Indian Laughter Challenge: Dwitiya. In a neck-to-neck contest, Lala beat Mumbai’s Rajeev Nigam to become Numero Uno on the show that has been making audiences roll with laughter for 18 weeks…. Among other goodies, Rauf also bags a brand new Chevrolet Aveo as part of the winning deal. Asked to comment on his victory, Lala — who hails from Karachi and has been doing stage shows for more than two decades now – says, “When my name was announced, I thought I was dreaming. I still find it difficult to believe. I am sure everyone back home in Pakistan is proud and happy….” Mumbai’s Rajeev Nigam was the 1st runner-up [and] had to say about him: “We are extremely happy that Bade Bhaiyya (Lala) won the contest. We never had any doubts about his capabilities and knew he was the best and the most eligible. To be honest, I would have felt bad if it were anyone else.”

It seems that while much is not working between these two countries, at least there is something about India-Pakistan people-to-people diplomacy worth smiling–even laughing–about.

More on this, and related, stories at Adil Najam’s blog All Things Pakistan.

Adil Najam