Be
Proud of Pakistan and its Great People
By Manzer Durrani, PhD
Plantation, FL
The article below appeared in the
Christian Science Monitor. It should give a boost
to our efforts and make us feel proud of being
Pakistanis. In spite of cynicism of a few, we
are a great nation. This catastrophe has proved
who we are - at home and abroad. The tremor which
I heard in so many of your voices told me how
much you loved that small piece of land and its
people in the far corner of the globe - our beloved
homeland Pakistan. I would like you to enjoy this
article as it circulates on Yahoo for one and
all to see. If you have a website, post it on
it. Truly, Quaid would be proud of us. Please
share the article you’re your friends. -
Manzer
Ordinary Pakistanis jam highways
in rush to volunteer
By David Montero
Correspondent of
The Christian Science Monitor
Tue Nov 15, 3:00 AM ET
GARHI DUPATTA, PAKISTAN: In
these valleys near the epicenter of Pakistan’s
earthquake, industrialist Nauman Wazir is applying
the skills that made him rich in the steel business
to push relief aid to quake survivors. Sometimes
that means paying money under the table to move
mountains - or pieces of mountains at least.
“Being businessmen, we use our own methods,
giving money here and there. Anything to get this
done,” says Mr. Wazir, explaining how he
paid out of his own pocket to have landslides
cleared so trucks could reach inaccessible areas.
“Since the quake I’ve not been at
my job. We’ve probably lost millions of
rupees,” he adds, standing in a tent village
funded by the Industrial Association of Peshawar,
a group he oversees. “But I could not have
lived through the trauma had I not done something.”
All across Pakistan, efforts to overcome the disaster
have been borne by thousands of citizens like
Wazir. Their efforts underscore a robust local
response that contrasts sharply with relatively
tepid donations from the international community.
Pakistan has one of the highest rates of philanthropy
in the world, with studies showing that 58 percent
of Pakistanis volunteer their time to needy causes,
giving nearly $700 million a year in charity.
Alms giving is built into the very social and
economic fabric of the state, with some $70 million
automatically deducted each year from national
bank accounts as part of the mandatory Muslim
prescription known as zakat.
But observers say that, even by Pakistani standards,
the public response has been overwhelming, with
relief aid and volunteers immediately pouring
into the affected areas from all over the country.
It has reinvigorated a civic spirit not seen in
some four decades.
Many are translating whatever skills and methods
they can to relief work, turning small websites
into fundraising platforms, tapping old high school
networks for aid, and applying medical training
to mend wounds. Those unable to make it to the
field are also actively involved, using the Internet
and cellphones to donate record amounts of money
in novel ways. And people are coming from all
over the country to lend a hand.
“There were traffic jams for 1,000 kilometers,
from Karachi to the northern areas, the whole
length of Pakistan,” says Nasreen Khattak,
an opposition member of the Provincial Assembly
of the North Western Frontier Province (NWFP),
one of the hardest hit areas.
Money has also been pouring in. Fundraisers, running
the gamut from full-fledged foundations to private
individuals, say they raised cash nearly instantaneously
after the quake. Wazir, for example, says his
association raised about $50,000 within an hour
of starting its campaign.
Convenient and novel methods of donating, undertaken
by the government, the corporate sector, and private
individuals, have helped open the cash stream.
Many banks have set up special relief accounts,
while a campaign coordinated by various telecom
companies has generated tens of thousands of dollars,
industry insiders estimate, by allowing mobile
phone users to send donations through short message
service, or SMS.
Then there are the invisible efforts of individuals
like Atharresool Kirimi, who runs the website
Muskurahat. Mr. Kirimi’s small company of
five usually develops websites for the private
sector, but after the quake, he and his staff
turned their site into an online fundraising tool.
He says he has managed to collect a total of $3,000,
most of it sent to the Presidential Relief Fund,
with the remaining used to buy tents and food.
Individual donations like this have so far amounted
to a staggering whole, with the President’s
Relief Fund reporting nearly $100 million already
deposited to date, and another $100 million in
pledges from NGOs and the corporate sector. “So
many deposits have come from ordinary citizens,”
says Lt. Col. Baseer Malik, a spokesperson for
the Federal Relief Commission. The money is still
coming, he says.
The internal rate of donations trumps that of
the international community, which one month after
the disaster had pledged $131 million - around
a quarter of the money the UN says is needed.
But Pakistanis are not only giving generously
of their money, but also their time.
Tanveer Afzel’s tent in Abbottabad, near
the quake’s epicenter, sees a steady trickle
of volunteers. The affable Mr. Afzel, a banker
by profession, accepts them graciously, providing
rounds of tea and crisp instructions in several
languages as to where they can deposit relief
goods. After the quake, Afzel and fellow members
of the Abbotonian Medical Society, a local high
school network, gathered funds and deployed 150
tents on the outskirts of the Ayub Medical center,
providing homes and food to 580 discharged patients
with nowhere else to go. The full-time staff of
six is now assisted by volunteers from across
the country, as well as doctors from Cuba and
nuns from India. “15,000 truckloads a day
were coming upcountry,” he says.
The quake relief effort is inspiring a new generation
of volunteers. Watching the tragedy on TV was
too much to bear, they say, so they sped off to
the quake zone. Students and professionals, the
trained and untrained, some driven by the call
of humanity, others by the call of God, they trudge
up mountainsides to deliver goods, to support
widowed women, and to retrieve bodies. Most sleep
in tents, some on the street.
In all these manifestations of national spirit,
observers laud the return of a sense of civic
duty not seen since Pakistan’s war with
India in 1965. They hope the flip side of the
tragedy can be a call for common cause, a note
of reconciliation.
“It was as if one huge family had been struck.
Thousands of families were acting as one,”
says Ms. Khattak. “This is coming at a time
when the national spirit will reinforce the country’s
unity.”
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