An earthquake of moderate intensity was felt in the country’s upper and northern parts on Friday.
According to the Regional Seismic Monitoring Centre, Lahore, the jolts were recorded at an intensity of 5.3 on the Richter scale. Tremors were felt in Islamabad, Peshawar, Swat, Buner, Shangla and Malakand, besides various other parts of Pakistan.
The earthquake’s epicentre was reported by the Met department to be the Tajikistan-Xinjian border region. It had a depth of 120 kilometres.
Panic arose among citizens due to the jolts, prompting them to quickly vacate their homes and offices and stand under the open skies to wait out the episode. However, Prime Minister Imran Khan, who was chairing a meeting on energy, gas and economic issues in Islamabad, remained seated and refused to act on the request made by security officials who entered the briefing room to shift the premier and others in the wake of quake.
The prime minister denied leaving the room, saying that earthquake would also be felt whichever place he would be evacuated to. “A man can’t do anything during an earthquake,” he said as he continued his meeting.
PM Khan’s composure encouraged other party leaders to get back to their seats and the meeting continued. No damages or loss of life were reported from any of the affected cities.
Published in Daily Times, October 20th 2018.
