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UAE to construct hospital in Pakistan for quake assistance

ISLAMABAD - The United Arab Emirates has announced plans to construct a 200-bed hospital in Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan-administered Kashmir, which was extensively damaged in last Saturday’s devastating 7.6 magnitude earthquake.

“The hospital will be equipped with operation theatres, laboratories and houses for doctors and nurses,” UAE Ambassador to Pakistan Dr. Ali Mohammad Al Shamshi told reporters in Islamabad on Saturday.

Construction work will start next month and the medical complex will be become operational by February 2006.

“Our president considers Pakistan as his second home and has directed to equip the hospital with state-of-the-art medical equipment,” Al Shamshi said, adding that his country may also provide free homes to quake-stricken people.

The international community has already committed some 400 million dollars in aid to the areas devastated by the quake, which killed an estimated 40,000 people and injured another 63,000.

The UN Undersecretary General Jan Egeland had Friday told reporters in Islamabad that billions of dollars would be needed for reconstruction and rehabilitation in five to ten years time.

Meanwhile, the Saudi Arabian government is operating ten flights daily to Pakistan with tons of relief goods including tents, blankets, medicines and food items.

Saudi ambassador to Pakistan Ali Awadh Asseri said in Islamabad that the frequency of aid flights would be increased in the next few days.

He said his government has also dispatched a state-of-the-art field hospital to the worst-hit Mansehra town in Northwestern Frontier Province (NWFP).

“This hospital will be operational in the next couple of days,” Asseri added.

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