Cuba has promised to donate its 32 field hospitals to Pakistan, which are currently providing medical treatment to thousands of people in the areas ravaged by the October 8 earthquake, a senior official said in a statement carried by DPA Friday. "Cuba has informed us that its doctors and paramedics will leave behind all the 32 field hospitals on completion of their stay in the quake-hit areas," federal relief commissioner Major-General Farooq Ahmad Khan told a press briefing in Islamabad. He said that Cuban team will stay in Pakistan until end of March. Asked if the federal relief commission has also asked Germany and France to donate their medical and other quake-related assets to Pakistan, Khan said, "We have made this request to all the countries engaged in the relief operations." He said that the Iranian doctors and paramedics left their field hospital in the quake-hit Kashmir region when they left the country. The 7.6 magnitude earthquake caused widespread destruction in a region of 28,000 square kilometers, killing over 73,000 people and rendering 3.5 million more homeless. Commissioner Khan confirmed that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's (NATO) troops were to leave Pakistan by the end of January after their 90-day mandatory stay in the Kashmir region. --More 00 52 Local Time 21 52 GMT
