Post-quake disaster in Pakistan averted

Aid agencies were now preparing to help survivors return to their homes as the emergency phase neared its end and recovery and reconstruction efforts began, said Jamie McGoldrick, the UN deputy humanitarian coordinator.

"There has been no second wave of deaths, no massive population movement down the mountains, no severe malnutrition and no outbreak of epidemics," he told reporters at a press conference marking five months since the disaster.

The massive 7.6-magnitude October 8 earthquake killed more than 73,000 people and left nearly three million homeless in Pakistani Kashmir and North West Frontier Province. Around 1,300 also died in Indian Kashmir.