Case Study 13: An Unplanned Future

Date: 01 November 2005
Name: Muhammad Hussain
Place: Krolly

Muhammad Hussain, resident of the village Krolly, Azad Kashmir, is a lumberdar (a local land revenue collector). He is in his eighties, a retired Pakistan Railways employee who has six sons, two of whom are married. Together these sons have twelve children.

Hussain, wanting to move his family to a better residence than the mud house that they had occupied for decades, had recently constructed a concrete house. He felt that the cement house would make his family more secure. Nature, however, had other designs.

On the day of the devastating quake, Hussain's house collapsed. Luckily, most of the family members were out in the open at the time, but his son Ejaz and his two grandsons, Ishtiaq and Haqqani, were in the house. All three died.

In a state of shock over their bereavement, it was some time before the family could come to grips with what had happened and what they should do now. Hussain's son in Mansehra, who had survived the quake, found a tent and food for the family. The future stands before them, and as Hussain says, it is unplanned.

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