Renewing his appeal to the people for stop donating clothes and edibles, he said, the survivors of October 8 massive earthquake were in urgent need of tents, blankets, overcoats, stoves, cash, transport, etc.
Addressing a press conference over phone from London at the Karachi Press Club, he said, MQM had accessed almost 60 percent of the quake-affected areas and set up field hospitals and emergency centres for distributing relief goods.
He said MQM and Khidmat-e-Khalq Foundation are actively involved in relief activities and so far relief goods of Rs 1.10 billion have been dispatched to the quake-affected areas of NWFP and AJK.
A tent village has been set up in one affected area. Two more are being set up in Garhi Habibullah and Pattiga areas. Medical camps set up at Muzaffarabad, Abbottabad, Mansehra, Batagram and Bagh are treating injured, he said. "October 8 was a horrible day in the history of Pakistan and since then as many as 896 aftershocks have been recorded in the affected areas." He said and prayed for the departed souls and early recovery of the injured.
He also renewed his appeal to the people for celebrating Eid-ul-Fitr with simplicity and donate money supposed to be spent on purchase of Eid suits, etc.
He said after the quake, emergency meetings of MQM Co-ordination Committee members were held on October 8 in Karachi and London and it was decided to suspend all types of organisational activities and started relief work.
The teams of volunteers are being dispatched to the affected areas daily.
Altaf said now there is a need of helicopters to deliver relief goods to the areas where no aid had so far reached. Transportation is also weak in the affected areas, he said and urged the transporters to volunteer their vehicles for smooth delivery of goods.
The MQM chief said that the co-ordination committee has decided to recruit jobless experienced doctors on pay for treating quake victims. Khidmat-e-Khalq Foundation has donated all its funds for quake survivors.
He urged other political and religious parties to dispatch their volunteers to the affected areas and do practical work. Aid from the MQM's overseas units, including New York, South Africa and Dubai is also pouring in Pakistan, Altaf said.
He condemned reports on activation of some groups involved in kidnapping children, stealing human organs and urged the government to immediately take notice of the situation.
He expressed concern that Pakistan Army does not have sizeable number of helicopters as 60-70 percent expenditure of the country was spent on defence. He regretted that some high officials of the federal government visited relief camps of other parties, but did not come at the MQM camps.
He urged the Sindh government to construct at least 10-feet banks at sea beaches to lessen damages to Karachi in case of any expected tsunami-like situation.