Masood ul-Mulk, Chief Executive of the Sarhad Rural Support Program spoke to the Society on 9th February about Humanitarian-Military interaction in Complex Emergencies: the Experience of Pakistan. His talk provided an invaluable survey of the activities of SRPN. He described earthquake and flood relief in recent years as well the programme's routine work.
We learnt a lot about the lives of the people SRPN helps, but his presentation was perhaps most useful because of its focus on how the RSPN machinery functions, and how it interacts with other institutions and above all with the Pakistan Army.
The talk was announced at short notice, when we heard that Masood was in England. But the turnout was very good, and many of those who came who the talk were old friends of the speaker and his family from Chitral.
During the evening General Palmer presented Masood ul-Mulk with a cheque for £3000 for the Rural Support Programme Network, money that was raised during the Society's charity cricket match in September 2010.
