Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has set up a relief fund to support the victims of Monday's massive earthquakes that jolted the southeastern region of Türkiye.
Information Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb, in a tweet on Tuesday, said that Sharif has decided to establish the "Prime Minister's Relief Fund to support the earthquake victims of brotherly country, Türkiye."
As a first step, she said, the members of the federal Cabinet have announced to donate one-month salary to the relief fund.
The federal government employees from grades 18 to 22 will also donate their one-day salary to the premier's fund.
*Earlier, the federal Cabinet which met with Sharif in the chair, offered condolences over colossal human and infrastructural losses and expressed solidarity with the government and the people of Türkiye.
Addressing the Cabinet, Sharif said Ankara always supported Pakistan in any hour of need. Paying back in the same coin, he added, Pakistan will not leave Türkiye alone in this testing hour. “Helping our Turk brethren is our religious duty,” Sharif said, according to a statement by his office.
Sharif urged the people of Pakistan, mainly philanthropists, to "generously" extend a helping hand to the earthquake victims.
Sharif and Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari will leave for Türkiye on Wednesday to express solidarity with the earthquake victims and the Turkish government at this trying hour, Aurangzeb said in a separate tweet.
Meanwhile, the first search and rescue teams from Pakistan arrived in Türkiye on Tuesday to support the ongoing relief and rescue operations in the quake-hit areas.
The teams arrived early this morning, according to the Pakistani diplomatic mission in the Turkish capital Ankara.
A C-130 plane carrying a 33-member contingent of Pakistan Army’s Urban Search and Rescue arrived in the Turkish city of Adana today.
In coordination with the Turkish disaster management authority, “the teams are immediately being dispatched to the affected areas,” Pakistan’s Embassy said.
Meanwhile, in a statement on Tuesday, the interim Afghan Foreign Ministry said Afghanistan stands in solidarity with its Turkish brothers and sisters in this time of hardship.
The ministry also announced a relief package of AFN 10 million (nearly $110,918) and AFN 5 (nearly $55,459) million to Türkiye and Syria respectively on the basis of shared humanity and Islamic brotherhood.
A 7.7 magnitude tremor early Monday struck the Pazarcik district of Kahramanmaras province, then about nine hours later, a 7.6 magnitude quake centered in Kahramanmaras’s Elbistan district rocked the region, affecting several other provinces, including Adana, Adiyaman, Diyarbakir, Gaziantep, Hatay, Kilis, Malatya, Osmaniye, and Sanliurfa.
The earthquake was also felt in several countries in the region, including Syria and Lebanon.
"We are facing one of the biggest disasters not only of the history of the Turkish Republic but also of our geography and the world," Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said.
At least 3,549 people were killed and 22,168 others injured in 10 provinces after two strong earthquakes, according to the president.
"Our biggest relief is that over 8,000 of our citizens have been rescued from the rubble so far," Erdogan said.
