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ISLAMABAD: The high death toll from Pakistan's earthquake has prompted anxiety that the country may face labour shortages in its industry and businesses as family members of the victims return to the quake-struck region.
The concern comes amid reports that thousands of low-paid employees are returning home from cities such as Karachi, Pakistan's main business centre, and Lahore, the country's second-largest city.
Central and southern Pakistan rely on workers from areas such as Pakistan's northern territory and Pakistan-administered Kashmir, areas where the economy is driven largely by nomadic herdsmen raising cattle and some farming.
"My wife, mother and mother-in-law have all died in the earthquake," says Saleem Khan, a Kashmiri driver for a bank in Karachi, who carries a sackful of food supplies as he boards a bus out of Islamabad. "I don't see how I would ever return to my job."
Asmat Abbassi, an office clerk in Lahore, lost his two children. "My wife is so traumatised that I don't see myself leaving Kashmir for work elsewhere in Pakistan," he says.
Up to half a million men working in Karachi came from Pakistan's northern regions and Kashmir, says Aaliya Dosa, senior vice-president of Arif Habib Securities in Karachi.
"It's hard to tell how many of these workers were directly affected," she says. Anecdotal evidence suggests there are many, but she adds: "In the short term, it's possible that many may want to bring their families out of the quake-hit region to the relative security of big cities."
Sub-zero temperatures in Kashmir in the days ahead are likely to bring further hardships for the victims who are still camping out under the open sky.
In large cities, sharply rising rental prices over the past five years have made it almost impossible for low- to medium-income employees to afford a house for their families as well as schooling for children.
"Much depends on how the reconstruction takes off," says Sakib Sherani, chief economist in Pakistan for ABN-Amro, the Dutch bank. "If there is as much money pouring in to the earthquake-hit region as the government estimates, it is possible many people would find jobs closer to home."
Analysts say international conference of prospective western donors in Geneva on October 25 will be crucial, A Pakistani Finance Ministry delegation led by Salman Shah, the prime minister's adviser on finance, is to present the country's case.
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