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Earthquake in Pakistan – 2005

The earthquake of 2005 was a major blow to Pakistan, which affected nearly 250,000 people. According to an official damage report on the disaster, around 57,000 to 80,000 people died, 50,000 or more injured while thousands lost their homes and hopes.

The centre of the earthquake was Pakistan-administered Kashmir known as Azad Kashmir, near the city of Muzaffarabad. It also affected the federal capital Islamabad, Gilgit-Baltistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. It occurred at 08:52:37 Pakistan Standard Time (03:52:37 GMT) on October 8, 2005. 

The magnitude of this earthquake on the rector scale was 7.6, similar in size to the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, the 1935 Quetta earthquake, the 2001 Gujarat earthquake, and the 2009 Sumatra earthquakes.

Surrounding regions like Tajikistan, Indian-administered Kashmir, Afghanistan and western China also received some tremors resulting in the death of 1,400 people.

The international community and the nation itself helped the affectees with their utmost love and affection. The people in the affected areas are now recovering quickly after such a horrible episode of Pakistan’s history.

Flood in Pakistan – 2010

The floods of 2010 were another big disaster for Pakistani nation that affected the whole country directly or indirectly. This disaster was even bigger than the 2005 earthquake in terms of affectees and destruction of property across the country. All four provinces were hit by the floods as they were on the same belt.

Beginning in late July 2010 as a result of heavy monsoon rains in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh, Punjab and Balochistan, the floods affected approximately one-fifth of Pakistan's total land area, 796,095 square kilometres (307,374 sq miles).

According to government numbers, about 20 million people were directly affected by the 2010 floods either in terms of property destruction, livelihood or infrastructure along with the death toll of 2,000.

The floods gave a severe blow to the power infrastructure of Pakistan. According to a rough estimation, 10,000 transmission lines and transformers, feeders and power houses in different flood-hit areas were damaged. The Jinnah Hydro power and 150 other power houses in Gilgit were inundated by flood water and this damage caused a power shortfall of 3.135 gigawatts.

The world helped Pakistan to survive out of this disaster as the nation was hit by another blow after the earthquakes. The UNO asked the international community to collect USD460 (€420) to help Pakistan out, The UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon promised to arrange the money. However, some of the promised amount was given to Pakistan but the rest is still in the process.