Health - 2

The only window of hope for the survivors of the earthquake are the Karakoram porters, who can keep the supply lines open during these harsh conditions.. Most of the trekking and mountaineering porters in Pakistan hail from Baltistan and Upper Hunza and they frequently have to carry heavy loads in remote areas, sometimes higher than [...]

The animal transport battalions of the Pakistan Army have a long, proud history. This is a mercy mission. And while it may be a physical challenge for a soft, city-living correspondent, to the men and mules of the 72nd Animal Transport Battalion of the Pakistan Army, it’s a day at the office. What really bothered [...]

In what some Pakistanis are calling the greatest display of national unity in their country’s 58-year-history, thousands of volunteers from across the country spontaneously collected vast amounts of food, clothing and medicine and rushed it to northern Pakistan after the severe earthquake of Oct. 8. The piles are the product of an impromptu grass-roots relief [...]

These men are the helicopter pilots of Pakistan’s armed forces – perhaps the only group of people in the sordid drama that have delivered more than was ever expected of them. While those in cities and towns – helped mostly by road transport – have perhaps not even noticed their presence beyond the deafening hum [...]

Five days after an earthquake hit northern Pakistan, cars and people loaded with relief goods continue to stream into collection centres all over the country in an unprecedented outpouring of giving. In the southern financial centre of Karachi, Pakistanis waited in the heat and sun for their turn to unload the goods at the largest [...]

Pakistan has been declared a visa-free country for a week for members of all relief and rescue teams coming to Pakistan to help the earthquake victims. Officials here said persons planning to come to Pakistan to take part in the relief operation in any form need not worry about visa. The facility is available both [...]

It should be the quietest time of year at the slimming clinic in the bustling city of Rawalpindi, Pakistan, but days before Muslims begin their holy fasting month, business is booming. “We have devised special Ramadan packages,” says the centre’s medical advisor Farzana Sadiq. A vendor selling cream and pistachio-filled sweets made specially for the [...]

The number of Afghan refugees returning from Pakistan under the voluntary repatriation assistance programme of the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has passed the 2.7 million mark, with over 415,000 repatriated so far in 2005, the agency has announced. Under the programme, nearly 1.6 million Afghans returned from Pakistan in [...]

The Pakistani army plucked a stranded climber from an icy ledge on one of the world’s most treacherous mountains in a daring high-altitude rescue yesterday. Two Lama helicopters hovered at almost 6,700 metres (21,980 ft) over Nanga Parbat, a Himalayan peak known as “killer mountain”, to rescue Tomaz Humar, a 36-year-old Slovene alpinist. Photographs posted [...]

For the first time thalassaemic patients have been treated with their own blood stem cells reducing not only their blood transfusion frequency but also lowering their iron overload significantly for the quality of their life, doctors claimed. Dr Ilham, the sole inventor of the TriStem Technology (Healthcare Solutions International), has also applied her process of [...]