PIAF sets up relief fund

LAHORE - Pakistan Industrial and Traders Associations Front (PIAF) has established Swat Relief Fund with a seed money of Rs 1.5 million for the assistance of those migrating from Swat and other troubled areas.
In a statement issued here on Monday, the PIAF Chairman Irfan Qaiser Sheikh and VC Iqbal Baig Chugtai and Khawaja Shahzeb Akram said PIAF is a representative body of both the trade and industry and it would extend all possible help to the people of Malakand Division in this hour of need.
The PIAF leaders said that the people of Swat and other troubled areas are our brethren and their help is our religious, moral and national obligation. They said that the arrangements were being finalised to ensure delivery of goods directly to the relief camps while contacts were also being made to the businessmen to collect more funds in this regard.
The PIAF leaders also appealed to the business community to tap their resources to extend help to those who are in deep trouble. They said the country was witnessing unrest in the Northern Areas particularly in Swat, Dir and Buner and a large number of people had already migrated from these areas and are living under the scorching sun. They said that these displaced persons are in need of basic amenities, food, medicine, shelter and we must rise to the occasion in a way the people of this country performed in the wake of Oct 8 deadly quake in NA.
The International Relief Agencies have estimated that millions of people have so far migrated to safer areas in the last few days with same number of people are on the move or about to move.