Starting this Christmas, Christian churches in Bradford Diocese will be asked to raise money to provide up to 30 fresh water wells in the area of the Pakistan-led North West Frontier Province devastated by last October's earthquake.

More than 16,000 people were killed by the quake which also caused havoc in parts of India.

As each well costs about £700 the overall cost of £21,000 is not inconsiderable. The idea for the appeal flows from the recent ten-day visit to Pakistan by the Bishop of Bradford and five advisers from the city.

The Bishop was inspired by a visit to Kunhar Christian Hospital in the next valley to the quake.

"It's an amazing story," he said. "The hospital, which was built in 2000, was the only building left standing after the earthquake. The director, Dr Haroon Lal Din, said: We built on a firm foundation.' His own house next door did not even have a broken cup.

"All the buildings around the hospital were damaged. Last summer there was a landslide. It missed the hospital by 75 yards and blocked a river. The river rose and a lake formed which rose but did not reach the hospital.

"I believe it was God's protection for the hospital that has been granted. Things are still far from ideal. There is a nun from Leeds there. She cannot walk out of the village on her own: she has to stay within the Christian compound.

"Until the earthquake the hospital was mistrusted by the local community. That changed after the earthquake. The hospital provided free health care for nine months. They have also started building wells for local villages.

"It's not been easy. Dr Haroon's five children were at a Christian school that was attacked with hand grenades. He has been in the area for 18 years.

"I have been so inspired by this that we are going to have a year in Bradford of raising money to buy wells for the people of the North West Frontier Province in Pakistan, from the churches in Bradford with love.

"We want to do this as an expression of friendship to overcome the divide between the two cultures and between Christians and Muslims."

There are up to three million Pakistani Christians in Pakistan, most of whom suffer discrimination at all levels including unjust blasphemy laws weighted against them.

Attempts are being made at enlightened moderation' to counter some of the worst abuses. For example, in the past any Muslim could simply accuse any non-Muslim of blasphemy for that person to be summarily arrested and jailed.

Now evidence must be produced. If anyone bears false witness against a non-Muslim for malicious purposes, he will be arrested and suffer the penalty of the law instead.

"The Minister for Religious Affairs, Ejaz-ul Haq, told us that the legal changes to the blasphemy law had made it a dead dog,' in his words," the Bishop said.

"I felt relaxed. If you come into a place relaxed, people feel relaxed around you. So you behave with courtesy, as a guest. Without exception people treated me with great cordiality and hospitality.

"There were times when we disagreed and we spoke our disagreement; but more often I was observing people disagreeing with each other because I was in mixed groups of people.

"One of the things I got out of it was the discovery that Pakistani Islam is far more diverse and open, with personal piety, than people might think. They were keen to assure me that Pakistanis are not terrorists and that they are against terrorism.

"But they were also afraid; the Pakistan media represents the world situation in terms of a clash of civilisations. I tried to reassure them this was not so. But they must understand that people in this country are afraid of being blown up in the Underground while going about their normal business.

"When I said we were very grateful to the government of Pakistan for informing us about the terrorists who wanted to blow up airliners in this country, they appreciated me telling them that," he said.

He said that in some aspects of multi-faith activity groups they were further ahead than in this country. Christians and Muslims go together to trouble spots to try to restore peace and harmony. Bishop David hopes that this is the main thing that Bradford can learn from his experience.

"Within Pakistan there is a form of Islam that has shaped people's beliefs that are quite different to the rather more austere Islam that I have observed within mosques in Bradford.

"Women have an outlet for their hopes and fears and prayers. I was amazed at how popular it was: a form of non-rational experiential Islam. It was new to me and was illuminating.

"The enlightened moderation that the Government and scholars are trying to introduce has to be seen against a background of a country where there are low levels of education - 50 per cent literacy. I think success hangs in the balance to be honest.

"There is a madrasa (school) in Lahore where they try to bring together Islam and scientific understanding. It is certainly very popular. But I think they are still fairly traditional in their approach.

"I hope we can bring to Bradford some of the people we met, people who are trying to interpret Islam for the modern world. Islam is in a state of pre-Reformation turbulence, to measure it against Christian history, and can go one way or another.

"It depends on education. There is no central authority to disseminate the Koran as the Church does for Christianity; people interpret it for themselves."