About floods and friendship?

In the face of the unprecedented disaster with the monsoon flooding almost a one-third of Pakistan and complaints that not enough help is coming in and a strange discussion is going on in the media in two directions: One is the remark of President Obama’s special envoy Richard Holbrooke, that look what all that US is doing and where is the help of Iran and your big friend China so far?. And the second worry of some is that oh now the militants are helping the flood victims and they seem to be much more successful than the foreign aid agencies. What if all the people in the west now realize that militants are also human beings and not animals and they do also care for human beings. Why, we should ask is such a discussion going on? Is this disaster not bad enough and is it not the affected people about whom we care first and foremost? In such a case it should not matter, who exactly is helping and why if just help comes timely and saves the lives of those who have lost everything and need food, tent and clean water for survival.

It seems that the cronies of US are trumpeting of helping victims of flood not because Pakistani people need help but because they want to say look how wonderful friends we are, who want to plant their NGOs also in this crisis. They expect that people will love the Americans after this instead of hating them and when later they make the Pakistan army do the job in the tribal areas which the US should have done in Afghanistan may the Pakistanis will not mind it then and they will forget who provided the most sophisticated arms to these militants to give resistance to Pakistan army in Swat.

The recent flood in Pakistan, which has displaced an estimated 20 million people, is one of those natural disasters that can break through the usual political barriers and resentments. It reminds us of our human bond with people who are suffering on a scale that is hard to conceive. The mighty Indus River, once the cradle of one of history’s earliest civilizations has devastated the land to which it gave birth, the irresistible force of the floods has also washed away the ancient ruins that had stood there for thousands of years. What are pathetic is callous elite and a system in decay in which the terrible loss of human life and property has remained barely noticed for more then two weeks, more then a million homes have been destroyed or damaged. Thatta could not be saved after more then three weeks of flooding in Indus River, more then a million people have become displaced wanting food and water they need to stay alive less then a hundred kilometer from Karachi.

The Haiti quake produced such an outpouring of assistance, but there has not yet been a comparable response from Americans to the Pakistani disaster. Pakistan has exhausted more then $ 80 to 100 billions in the American proxy war, and look at their attitude in this hour of need, we have not forgotten that in 2005 earthquake they sent helicopters with crew and then deducted the operational cost of their crew and fuel etc from the promised aid announced for earthquake relief work. Where is the surge of private contributions except that Dow Jones has allowed for one hour their silver screen on which only the portraits of Pakistani Counsel General and Commercial Secretary were telecast? Where are the movie stars whose private jets were queued up in Port au Prince? Where are Anderson Cooper and the other journalists who rushed to Haiti? Where are Barrack Obama and Michelle, and why can’t they adopt the Pakistani people in the same way Bill and Hillary Clinton did with Haiti? Pakistan needs help from its friends and allies, not strings attached to it. Flood waters are engulfing at least 30 percent of the country, an area equivalent in distance to that from New York to South Carolina, and destroying the crops, seeds and livestock of tens of millions of farmers, the quantum of financial loss of crops is estimated around 400 billion rupees. These desperate families will need government assistance for at least a year, just to survive. Where Pakistani government has failed there Pakistani army and general public has mobilized resources but absence of a proper emergency contingency plan is the missing link, rulers are busy in photo session and attempts to divert public attention on non-issues like the cricket betting in league with its cricketers, some of whom would even try to take refuge by declaring that they were also collecting money for disaster relief operation. In the holy month of Ramazan we should remember that God will not like help which is given with a selfish motivation in mind. Giving the needy in such a desperate situation is a sacred act of selflessness.

The other worry that the help of the Taliban or Taliban-minded people will widen the influence of tale ban in those areas is another case in the same mind-set. It should be the first worry that helps is coming finally regardless who is providing it. The fact that the government is unable to do the needful shows only what we knew before. The government is incapable because it consists of people who are incapable with fake degrees and with “connections” instead of know-how. This is why the “writ of the state” has deteriorated badly during the last two years so much so that in Karachi people are killed in the open without any consequence, law and order is absent, prices are sky-rocketing because missing writ of the government. Would it be a surprise if those people who saw the selfless, timely and well-organized help of the Taliban start thinking that may be their rule would not be that bad after all?

The Prime Minister pointed out that 80 per cent of the foreign aid meant for flood affected people will come through NGOs which will siphon off half of the same with impunity. This he must have said because of our past experience during earthquake operations, when American helicopters were not allowed to fly in our sensitive zones they raised bills for fuel and crew, which was perhaps deducted from their aid.

Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani has done well by raising the most pertinent question at the most appropriate time and hopefully the international community would pay attention to this aspect. This is because the foreign aid is already being described as peanuts in the backdrop of large-scale devastation caused by rains and floods in all the four Provinces, Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan. And if 50% of whatever is being contributed goes to the overhead expenses then one can imagine what would trickle down to the deserving people. It is understood that the NGOs and even the United Nations have no executing agencies of their own and they hire personnel, acquire accommodation and offices and make purchases like vehicles and office furniture and equipment from the market out of the funds meant for relief and rehabilitation. In this background we must realize that instead of loading further with World Bank, IMF and Asian development Bank loans, we should try to organize our own house not by cutting the developmental expenditure of the ADP but certainly by plugging the colossal leakages from ADP funds, which will provide a highway for survival without looking for friends who are looking for opportunities in this very sorry affair.