Islamabadiites shocked as Capital rocked by trembling Earth
—Nightmare for a day befalls on Islamabad
By Uzma Zafar

Everyone was sleeping or almost everyone lied unconscious after eating their sehris, totally oblivious of the world, when around 8:40a.m., yesterday when their beds and moreover, houses, were rocked all around. Bewildered, few opened their eyes and thought that it must be an extension of their dream and thus, shifted positions and tried to doze again. But the tremor rocked them again and this time they became wide awake. And by 9:02a.m., when the Earth finally stopped shivering, the whole Capital was up and alive, buzzing with activity, running towards open air spaces, switching on the communication lines, calling peers on mobiles and switching on the television for updated news as panic had already captured the city.
At most places the Cable TV network was lashed as well while the mobile interconnectivity went totally warped. On the land lines of telephone, the dial tone either disappeared or came after minutes of wait seeming like hours. Masses kept calling here and there from their cell phones or trying to call anyway, for it’s the age of mobiles today. However, due to disrupted communication, the effort simply created more panic, nothing less. Those who had hooked themselves to the television screen and the latest updates of the news flashes, got tense by every moment, as par the finicky nature of Capitaliites. Non-communication added up to the miseries.
Then suddenly the news of demarcation of two blocks of a multi-storey complex within the Federal Capital came in. The thrill seekers that the masses are, rushed to the spot, blocking the way of the rescuers even. The fact was later revealed that no doubt the earthquake was strong enough but the main reason of the building collapse, that has become the norm these days anyway, remained faulty construction material used in the building. It made sense too as otherwise, other buildings would’ve been destroyed too. Along President, PM, various ministers including Interior Minister; Aftab Ahmad Khan, Sherpao, Minister of State for Interior; Shehzad Waseem, various envoys like Japanese, CDA Chairman, cops, army and CDA personnel, NGOs and hence masses from all walks and talks of life remained glued to the site, either out of curiosity or for relief attempts.
This was the 4th severest earthquake of 2005 as we talk of it internationally while 1st of it’s kind in the Capital, after a lapse of 100 years in fact. And the strange thing is that such a massive destruction as far as the masses could remember, had never occurred in Ramazan. Islamabadiites thus later, bowed their heads in prayers for the troubled. Till late last night, shrills and cries of the entrapped remained sounding in the chilly air while the tremors kept on shaking various places all through the day and as par the Met Office predictions, would continue to play havoc at least for the next 4 days. At the end of the day, when the people were able to contact each other, they cried in relief saying, “Oh, What a nightmare, Oh what a nightmare!”