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It happened in an instant. One of the worst natural disasters in history.

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Tens of thousands killed and untold devastation.

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Can Pakistan ever fight its way back? And if so, at what cost?

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Pakistan, October 8th, 2005.

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Minutes after the earthquake struck.

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More than two million people were made homeless.

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73,000 lay dead, nearly half of whom were children.

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Many of the children who survived were orphaned.

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North of the Pakistani capital of Islamabad, at this government-run orphanage,

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children gather for morning class.

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Separated from his parents by the quake, 13-year-old Aurangzeb thinks they're dead.

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Just as class is settling down for the first lesson,

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a delegation from the Red Cross arrives, carrying news.

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Against all odds, and six months after the event, Aurangzeb's mother has been found alive and well.

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Did you think that you would see them again?

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No, I thought I would never see them.

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What did you think happened to them?

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I thought that my mother was dead.

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How has life been here in the orphanage?

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It's been OK.

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The Red Cross delegation has also got a letter from Aurangzeb's mother.

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But instead of calling him home, she tells him to stay just where he is.

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She knows that the facilities and education available to him at the orphanage

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are much better than he would get at home.

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It is closure of stories like this that mark the end of the emergency phase of the relief effort,

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says Pakistan's Prime Minister, Shaukat Aziz.

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And this process is now gradually coming to an end.

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We want people to gradually move out of the tents and the refugee camps into permanent homes.

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We have impressed upon people that living in a tent with your family forever

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is not the best thing for them or their children.

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Pakistani-administered Kashmir was the area worst hit by the earthquake,

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with basic infrastructures all but destroyed.

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Across much of the territory, reconstruction is already underway

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as people try to piece together the remnants of their shattered lives.

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But for those people who have spent the last six months in tents,

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the task of reconstruction looks set to be a long and painful process.

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Throughout the long winter months,

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the basic needs of the displaced have all been met.

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And the prospect of returning to villages utterly destroyed is a daunting one,

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especially now that they have grown accustomed to the free social services

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to which they will have little access once back in their villages.

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Mohammad Iftikhar is preparing to return home with his mother and siblings.

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Here they give us everything we need.

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We have food to eat and everything is provided.

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I don't feel like going back, but I have no choice.

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No choice because the government has made it clear that the $3,000 compensation package

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that they are offering the displaced is only available to those who return to their villages.

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But for Mohammad's younger sister, Binesh, the prospect of going home brings fears.

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Binesh was in school when the earthquake struck.

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She saw many of her friends killed by the collapsing rubble.

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She is terrified of going home, but returns she must.

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And so her brother continues loading their possessions and food rations

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onto the truck that will carry them back to their village.

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Mohammad and Binesh's reluctance to once again face life without the safety net of the relief effort

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is a typical sentiment of many of the victims.

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We would like people to get back onto their feet.

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And that is why we are moving away from free food to such livelihood programs

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like food for work, cash for work.

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We're looking for a behavioral shift here.

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Start working. That's the only way.

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You can't do it any other way.

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You have to go back and get going.

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Binesh and her family are lucky that their village is reasonably close

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and serviced by a motorable road.

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Kashmir's roads are still scarred by landslides, and many remain impassable.

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After a long trek up the steep and narrow mountain path, the family has finally reached home.

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Binesh and her mother leave the men to unpack as they make the short climb up to their village.

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Not much remains, and the few buildings left standing are largely uninhabitable.

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But as Binesh and her mother make a tour of the sorry ruins of their village,

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at last, a welcome sight.

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Seeing her aunt again brings the first smile in many months to Binesh's face.

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Meeting up with her aunt has given Binesh courage to confront some of her demons,

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and she resolves to take her mother to the site of her former school

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to show her what happened that day.

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That is where I was trapped.

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Under a desk over there.

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There was a big bang, and the walls started falling down.

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Then there was just darkness and screaming.

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Close to the school lies one of the victims, Binesh's favorite teacher,

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who refused to be carried from the rubble until the last child had been rescued.

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But by the time the rescuers got to her, it was too late.

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My teacher told us to study hard, pass our exams and get good jobs, like a teacher or a doctor.

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So Binesh has made a silent promise to her dead teacher to do just that.

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But the physical and psychological devastation of the earthquake

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will make a difficult promise even harder to keep.