Flood: Questions about Pak Govt’s credibility

It appears in the end that the sheer enormity of the catastrophic floods is going to dictate its terms, pushing aside questions about the Pakistan government’s credibility and the opposition’s role in the relief programme and their individual and collective capacities to deliver.
The devastation caused by this deluge of biblical proportions is too massive; to think that in there resides an opportunity to earn political mileage is nothing but self-deception. Aptly described is the size of the challenge by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon when he says, “Make no mistake; this is a global disaster, a global challenge”. Around 4.6 million people are still without shelter, stranded on isolated patches of high ground and living on sparse food and contaminated water. Much more daunting is going to be the task of their rehabilitation; tougher than the rescue and relief operations, which so far have not been very enviable either. What will be the shape of things sociological, political and economic at the end of the day, one would not hazard a guess. With one-tenth of the citizenry caught in this apocalyptic tragedy and thoroughly traumatised and with one-fifth of rich agricultural landmass under water for weeks, the kind of future we are going to inherit is uncertain, if not bleak and perilous.
Much more than our national leadership, from both sides of the political divide, still mired in competing contentions, it is the international community that has registered the pain and plight of ordinary Pakistanis. It’s no wonder then that the relief assistance being committed has gone up by many notches. Even the United States – that sees Pakistan essentially through an anti-terrorism prism – has set up a Pakistan Relief Fund, with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton accepting that Pakistan military has justly diverted its resources from the war on terror to attend to flood victims because ‘it was necessary to do so’.
“The extent of this disaster is overwhelming, how you know how and where and when to deliver resources when the disaster is ongoing. It hasn’t stopped,” she said. Senator John Kerry, as he addressed a press conference jointly with President Zardari at the Chaklala air base on Thursday, also displayed similar concern – though he seemed to be playing on the pitch prepared by the Aiwan-i-Sadr that should the international assistance be short and delayed, the militants would hijack national politics. “We need to address that (consequences of floods) rapidly to avoid their (Pakistanis’) patience boiling over,” the senator argued. But this argument was a little off the mark, for what would earn the flood victims’ anger may not only be the quantity of the relief but more importantly, the quality of its distribution.
Will the flood victims get equal treatment, that’s the debate now raging in the country. Having agreed with the PML (N) leadership on the need to set up a joint relief commission ‘comprising men of integrity’, Prime Minister Gilani has taken a U-turn, alleged to be under the pressure of his party leadership and announced the formation of an ‘oversight council’. Given the Opposition’s negative disposition to President Zardari, the said council is going to be just a still-born entity with no role to play in flood relief and rehabilitation, handing over the relief assistance to many hands. Of course, the situation that obtains in the wake of the floods defies a perfect solution, but the next best thing after the PML (N)’s advice was ignored, is to entrust the lead role to the armed forces. For one, it has the required wherewithal, including organisational capacity, to handle the problem of the size the floods pose. Two, if the media coverage is any indicator, it also enjoys the trust of the broad masses. The fact is that one has yet to hear a flood victim uttering a word of satisfaction, much less of praise, for the help and assistance rendered by the civilian authorities, while the contribution being made by the armed forces is on everyone’s lips. The leadership in Islamabad would do well to recognise this fact and move beyond its worries that there is political mileage to be won from this tragic disaster.