PAKISTAN: Pakistan united in mourning yesterday in memory of about 73,000 people killed in an earthquake exactly a year ago, while survivors vented frustration over the pace of reconstruction.
Worshippers at the country's mosques prayed in unison for the dead and survivors alike.
Sirens sounded across the nation to start a minute's silence to mark the first anniversary of the nation's worst disaster.
The Irish Government pledged an extra €1 million to the victims, bringing the total aid relief from the Government to €9 million.
Small prayer meetings were held in Balakot, a town in the frontier province that suffered the most intensive devastation.
The largest group of mourners were in the grounds of a ruined school where 63 children were buried in a common grave.
More than 200 were killed there when the walls and ceilings caved in.
There was also a memorial service held in Islamabad to remember those killed in the Margala Towers - the only building in the capital to collapse.
An overnight vigil was held at the site of the 10-storey residential block, where nearly 50 people died, many of them foreigners.
Addressing the commemoration in Muzaffarabad, President Pervez Musharraf promised that the bulk of rebuilding would be completed within two or three years, and that allegations of corruption would be dealt with firmly.
"With the Grace of God, things are heading towards much improvement," he said after laying a wreath at a memorial.
With a second winter just a couple of months away, and many victims still living in tents or makeshift shelters, critics accused the government authority overseeing the rebuilding project of dragging its feet in dispensing funds and setting appropriate guidelines for earthquake-proof construction of new homes.
In Balakot leading politicians heard angry complaints and a few hundred people marched in protest.
On Saturday hundreds more had demonstrated outside parliament in Islamabad. - (Additional reporting: Reuters)
