[APWSLMembers 101] About Earthquake

[Rubinawwo]

 Brief about earthquake 
& relief work for earthquake victims in Pakistan
All Pakistan Trade Union Federation called its meeting, In which volunteers, working in earthquake area and APTUF office bearers participated. The volunteers reported in the meeting about the worse situation and how the relief work is going on.

It was discussed in the meeting that the military government has totally failed to provide essential relief commodities to earthquake victims because of lack of coordination, lack of planning how to send goods and things in every area to support earthquake victims.  Thousands of severe injured children / women and people shifted to different hospitals in big cities of Lahore, Rawalpindi / Islamabad, Karachi, they lost their families because before shifting those people in different hospitals the officials did not maintained any record. Women and children’s are still in Trauma, it was also reported that some gangsters going to adopt children’ there is a fear to involve children in trafficking.

It was discussed that the government did not have a plan to deal with the situation, appropriate emergency equipment, and the ability to coordinate and facilitate the outburst of public efforts. Where the huge defence budget is going to when, not have helicopters, cranes, and other adequate equipment to rescue people...two helicopters were used for VVIP movements, the foreign rescue helicopters are used to send the goods to victims,  ...it was amazing that when the army was asked to bring in sniffer dogs for rescue efforts in Islamabad, they could only bring two and they too most probably from the anti-narcotic force or were totally untrained... further why has it not been possible to reach the remote villages in desperate need for relief and rescue.

Hundreds of thousands of homeless and displaced victims of the October 8 earthquake that devastated Pakistan-administered Kashmir and Northern Pakistan face the threat of disease and death from exposure unless the supply of weatherized tents and blankets increases dramatically and quickly. Almost two weeks after the earthquake, there is a massive shortage of tents even in Muzaffarabad, the hub of international and Pakistani relief efforts.

It was discussed that our strategies for coping with the aftermath reveal much about our socio-political structures. This tragedy may in effect become a mirror of the Pakistani state — a mirror that induces the people to raise wide-ranging questions not only about its crisis managing capacities, but more significantly, about its very priorities and ethos as these have taken shape over successive decades and through various regimes. Specifically, the state’s failure to forge the country’s destiny and protect the common man’s future may not go unquestioned.



The absence of any governmental action in the affected areas soon after the earthquake also shows the absence of any contingency plan to deal with the occurrence of such a natural disaster. 

It is a government of the elite by the elite and for the elite. Even the shift between civil and military led governments has impacted little upon this dynamic given the degree of convergence between the interests of these respective pillars of state. Thus, government remains cast in an elitist, colonial mode rather than being embedded within society.

The terrible loss of life and property incurred in the quake will haunt our nation for years to come. The relief operation called for by this quake will need to outlast the mere provision of blankets, food and tents. The next challenge is rehabilitation of battered communities and reconstruction of shattered infrastructure.

It was discussed that we have ability to provide for all our people, all we need is the will. In the months ahead, all those who believe in Pakistan must continue to display the same dedication and selflessness that has inspired ordinary people to throng to the task of rescuing helpless men, women and children from piles of mud and stone. We need to remind the occupants of high office that one cannot put Pakistan first by putting Pakistanis last.



Considering the scale of disaster, any country would need outside help to deal with it but what is important is the depth of the country's own response and the role of its leaders to lead the nation under difficult and challenging circumstances.  We know that there are many public and private individuals and institutions going out of their way to reach out to the affected areas but the state as whole has clearly been brought to its knees as a result of their own inadequacies and insensitivities...This is indeed a time for serious reflection for the entire nation...it is important that the state own up to its failure to rise to the occasion, to be timely, to relevant.

It is confirmed that new deaths figures bring the total to 70, 000 (seventy thousands) in all area affected by the quake. The challenge was bigger than after the 2003 earthquake in Bam, Iran or even the 2004 tsunami.

More and more people are discovered with untreated injuries sustained in the earthquake and, increasingly, their wounds are becoming infected and gangrenous, our correspondent says.

Relief Efforts For Earthquake Effectees Underway
APTUF/WWO was among those few trade unions that geared into action quickly after the earthquake and started working in earthquake-affected areas in NWFP and Kashmir.

APTUF launch a campaign and established “APTUF Earthquake Relief Fund”, its members contributed their 1 – day salary and collected one lakh rupees.  



Understanding the need for swift action, All Pakistan Trade Union Federation / Working Women Organization respond with a comprehensive and well-coordinated relief work started in NWFP and Kashmir.  APTUF 20 volunteers are working in above mention areas day and night.  APTUF distributed blankets, warm cloths, dry food, medicines.  

Problems and Hurdles  

Ø      Bad law of order situation:  On the way to deliver the goods to earthquake victims the dacoits are attacking on Trucks and vans and looting goods.
Ø      Any times the roads block because of land slide, volunteers have to stop the work 
Ø      Bad weather and snow falling.
Ø      Lack of tents, blankets 
Ø      Prices of things shoot up
Ø      Lack of female doctors
Ø      Lack of resources
APTUF still working for the betterment of  the needy people, childrens and women, lost every thing.



Rubina Jamil
     All Pakistan Trade Union Federation
    14-N Industrial Are, Gulberg, Lahore
    Pakistan
    Tel: 92-42-6686382/6686519
 


 

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