Pakistan’s worst and strongest earthquake originated from an epicenter 10 kilometers deep located somewhere in Mansehra district (34.432°N and 73.537°E). It brought its first and severest tremors at 8.50 in the morning. The region’s worst quake took place on May 30, 1935, and is thought to have been of an intensity of 8.1, killing over 30,000 inhabitants.

Normally, earthquakes in Pakistan have been centered in the Hindu Kush mountain ranges and inside Afghanistan. The October 8 earthquake not only brought death and destruction to northern Pakistan and the entire Jammu and Kashmir state, but also raised newer scientific questions as to whether new tectonic activity has started in the Hazara division, endangering not only the populous cities of Peshawar to Lahore but also putting at risk the civilian and defense industries located in the seismological zone.

World Health Organization regional chief Hussein Gezairy said it would be \"much, much more difficult\" to reach quake victims in the Himalayas than tsunami survivors in Southeast Asia. \"In the tsunami 1.5 million people were made homeless, but in this case we expect more than 2.5 million to be homeless,\" he said. \"For the 1.5 million people who were homeless, something like $10 billion were mobilized. I do not expect this to be happening in Pakistan, but I hope that people will give much more,\" he said.

It goes without saying that the government was little equipped to rescue thousands of trapped survivors. From very basic needs such as tents and high energy BP-5 biscuits to modern, hi-tech devices like cargo helicopters and hand-held concrete cutting saws, the government had little to mobilize for protecting the disaster-hit nation.

Soon after the scale of disaster started showing its ugly face, the world swiftly moved in to assist Pakistan, with Saudi Arabia and Turkey being the foremost. Besides the Muslim Arab nations, Japan, Britain, Sweden, China, France, European Commission and of course the United States offered assistance in a variety of ways ranging from cash, tents and foodstuff to helicopters. Pakistan accepted Indian relief goods but refused to accept Indian helicopters assisting in relief missions if flown by Indian pilots, fearing “real-time exposure to topology and its security-sensitive locations”. New Delhi, on the other hand, did not agree on sending its aircraft without pilots. In line with its softer policy toward Israel, Islamabad quietly accepted Israeli offers of humanitarian aid.

The earthquake offered the United States an ideal opportunity to build back its deteriorating image by announcing relief assistance and flying in eight helicopters from Afghanistan followed by a short sympathy visit by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. The U.S. government is sending another 24 helicopters to Pakistan for relief operations in the earthquake-hit areas.

Another important development was the Islamists’ lead over the military-led operations in reaching the disaster zone for rescue and relief. Even Msuharraf publicly sought apology for the army’s late as well as slow intervention.

Interestingly, the otherwise media-weary Pakistani government gave blanket access to international TV channels and newspapers to freely report from the disaster zone. To avert public anger, the death toll is gradually being revised upwards from 40,000 to more realistic numbers which could reach 100,000.

Snow has already started to fall in the disputed state of Jammu and Kashmir and the relief workers are rightly worried that within three weeks, hundreds of thousands of people will be cut off due to the multiple effects of unfriendly weather and quake-devastated roads.

Thousands of injured people languish without shelter and medical care in cities and villages across the earthquake-stricken region as the country has run out of tents. Pakistan will need at least two million tents to set up makeshift cities in the short term while reconstruction costs may well surpass the initial estimate of $5 billion.

Since the dark year of 2005 has been a year of natural disasters – the tsunami, Katrina, Rita and then the earthquake – strains on the international donor community as well as the well-to-do cosmopolitans has grown to a record level with assistance to Afghanistan, Iraq and misery in Africa far from over.

With 100,000 dead and many more homeless, the affected people will need a continuous supply of assistance to restart their lives. The million-dollar question here remains: Will the wealthy foreign and local communities be affected by “compassion fatigue”?

The world’s donor community has used the term compassion fatigue much more often than before. The western world has stood by its words in Sudan and in the Asian tsunami, and will hopefully keep this up in South Asia as well. The survivors look towards the wealthy nations hoping that they will summon up the same spirit of compassion once more. Will the Pakistani ruling elite lend ears to this bloody wake-up call, and develop disaster management infrastructures for future?