Sunday, December 04, 2005
Pakistani bankrolls earthquake recovery - L.A. Times
Ihsan Khan returned to Pakistan with his lottery millions and is leading his quake-ravaged hometown.
...
Khan's is an unlikely international tale of abject poverty turned to fantastic riches. Leaving Batagram for the U.S. penniless in 1977, he returned two decades later as one of the wealthiest men in Pakistan.
For years, the slightly built Khan, who worked as a cabbie in Washington, D.C., had regularly played the lottery.
He sometimes slept in his cab, but Khan never gave up hope. ...
Then the incredible happened: In November 2001, the immigrant won a $55.2 million jackpot. He opted for a lump-sum prize payout and posed for photos with an oversized check for $32,499,939.24.
...
Just days before the earthquake, Khan was elected district nazim, or mayor, of Batagram. After the quake hit, he helped pull survivors from the rubble, and paid to get the most seriously injured to regional hospitals. He told pharmacists he would pay them later for dispensing all the medicine on their shelves. The bill came to 10 million rupees, almost $200,000.
Khan has bankrolled a program to supply roofing materials to rebuild shattered homes. He bought 150 tents, some of which occupy land just outside his mansion with breathtaking views of snowcapped peaks.
Most important, Khan has emerged as a colorful and outspoken critic of local government corruption.
...
"That day, I saw some bodies piled on the ground, people crying out and dying," he says. He found one small boy hooked up to an IV machine. A doctor had chalked an X on the youth's bare chest to designate that he was not expected to live unless he was taken to a hospital two hours away.
Khan grabbed a woman with a car. He took out his wallet. "Take this boy, please, I'll pay you," he told her. The woman agreed. But the lottery winner-turned-public servant learned that money cannot buy everything. The boy died minutes later.
"I can see that boy now," an emotional Khan says. "His face is something I will never forget."
...
Ihsan Khan returned to Pakistan with his lottery millions and is leading his quake-ravaged hometown.
...
Khan's is an unlikely international tale of abject poverty turned to fantastic riches. Leaving Batagram for the U.S. penniless in 1977, he returned two decades later as one of the wealthiest men in Pakistan.
For years, the slightly built Khan, who worked as a cabbie in Washington, D.C., had regularly played the lottery.
He sometimes slept in his cab, but Khan never gave up hope. ...
Then the incredible happened: In November 2001, the immigrant won a $55.2 million jackpot. He opted for a lump-sum prize payout and posed for photos with an oversized check for $32,499,939.24.
...
Just days before the earthquake, Khan was elected district nazim, or mayor, of Batagram. After the quake hit, he helped pull survivors from the rubble, and paid to get the most seriously injured to regional hospitals. He told pharmacists he would pay them later for dispensing all the medicine on their shelves. The bill came to 10 million rupees, almost $200,000.
Khan has bankrolled a program to supply roofing materials to rebuild shattered homes. He bought 150 tents, some of which occupy land just outside his mansion with breathtaking views of snowcapped peaks.
Most important, Khan has emerged as a colorful and outspoken critic of local government corruption.
...
"That day, I saw some bodies piled on the ground, people crying out and dying," he says. He found one small boy hooked up to an IV machine. A doctor had chalked an X on the youth's bare chest to designate that he was not expected to live unless he was taken to a hospital two hours away.
Khan grabbed a woman with a car. He took out his wallet. "Take this boy, please, I'll pay you," he told her. The woman agreed. But the lottery winner-turned-public servant learned that money cannot buy everything. The boy died minutes later.
"I can see that boy now," an emotional Khan says. "His face is something I will never forget."
...
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