As the nation mourns the earthquake tragedy, he has donated one month's salary the towards relief fund, whereas he is spending a major portion of his financial savings on the welfare of the victims.
Having mobilised resources of neighbours and friends, he has arranged donations amounting to lacs of rupees already. His wife spends most of the day at the capital hospitals where the victims are being treated, comforting the children there and asking the management for their immediate needs.
Accordingly, she is managing to deliver, sometimes, emergency supplies to a hospital, bed-sheets and blankets to the other. Every day she visits affected children at camps brought from different localities, taking along with her toys, eatables and small presents for them. His young son, along with friends, had gone on the second day of the earthquake to a remote village in Mansehra carrying cooked food in packets for them.
Now he is in Muzaffarabad, for the last four days or so, joining hands with hundreds of international and local volunteers doing rescue and relief operations in the area. His daughter and son in-law, both medical doctors in the US, are scheduled to arrive soon to extend medical care to the affected persons.
His another daughter, a student in the UK, has initiated a fundraiser by the Islamic Society, at university, while her Christian friends prayed for the victims in Church on Sunday. His family has decided to celebrate Eid with simplicity, and to contribute the Eid-shopping money for the rehabilitation of the millions now rendered homeless.
This is his story, and this may be my story. Or, this could be yours. Indeed, this could be the story of any patriotic Pakistani. In fact, it should be the story of every Pakistani.
The rescue and relief operations may fade away shortly but the rehabilitation of survivors and the infrastructure restructuring phase is crucial and time-consuming too. We need to keep alive our spirits. It at times like these that we are tested!
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