Pakistan: Relief operations flounder
By Syed Fazl-e-Haider
KARACHI - With Pakistan facing probably its most dire humanitarian and financial crises in its history, for the ever-strengthening militants threatening the country's security it's business as usual.
On Wednesday, a suicide bomber driving a taxi rammed into the car of a paramilitary commander in Peshawar, the capital of northwestern Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa province, one of the provinces hardest hit over the past few days by floods and landslides that have claimed the lives of more than 1,500 people and affected millions of others.
The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the suicide attack in which three other people were killed and 10 injured, saying they
would target any security officials who had acted against them. At least 650 people have been killed in 25 major terrorist attacks nationwide since January - the majority in the tribal areas now ravaged by the record-breaking monsoon rains.
From the militants' viewpoint, the devastating floods provide an opportunity, not only to continue attacks - security officials have their hands full with relief operations - but also to win favor by helping those affected.
When a massive earthquake shattered Pakistan-administered Kashmir in October 2005, the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) assisted victims and in many instances its members were the first on the scene to render help. This won the LeT, a banned organization blamed for among other things the deadly attacks on the Indian city of Mumbai in 2008, considerable grassroots sympathy.
Media reports say that a charity linked to the LeT is distributing food and medical services in Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa. "We are reaching people at their doorsteps and in the streets, especially women and children who are stuck in their homes," a member of the Falah-e-Insaniat charity was quoted by the Associated Press as saying.
Such relief efforts will resonate with a population already angry over what people see as a slow and ineffective official response to the tragedy. President Ali Asif Zardari has come in for particularly stinging criticism as he is on a diplomatic swing through Europe at a time when his countrymen feel they need him most. The major criticisms of relief operations are a lack of strategic direction, inadequate infrastructure to handle disaster and a lack of coordination among different services.
The United States, meanwhile, is helping. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Wednesday said the US had pledged US$10 million for flood relief, saying the figure could rise. The US is also supplying search and rescue equipment, disaster assessment teams, water purifiers and prefabricated bridges. The Pentagon has sent four Chinook helicopters to assist in evacuating stranded people.
Initial losses are estimated at more than $2 billion, said Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain, although the figure is expected to go much higher as officials are having problems getting updated figures.
"We appeal to the international community to help us in these trying times. Only the United States has pledged $10 million while other countries, including Islamic states, are silent," Hussain was quoted by Inter Press Service as saying.
However, the British government has pledged $8 million in aid, Australia $4.4 million and China $1.5 million. Other countries, including Indonesia, South Korea and Canada, have also promised help.
The American relief efforts can't do the US's image any harm in a country where it is widely disliked for what is perceived as pressuring Pakistan into joining the "war on terror" and abandoning the Taliban and jihadi groups.
Pakistan's unfolding catastrophe is forecast to deepen as more rains arrive, with the threat of disease ever-present. Food prices have already risen sharply as agriculture has been wiped out in much of the country's breadbasket.
"We see an urgent need for food assistance to people affected by floods to prevent a starvation-like situation," said Amjad Jamal, a spokesman for the United Nations' World Food Program. "Eighty percent of food reserves have been destroyed by the floods, which also caused massive damage to livestock, markets, roads and overall infrastructure."
The Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa government has asked the federal government to exempt people in flood-affected areas from all federal taxes and to waive electricity bills - where there is still power.
Typical of the devastation is the troubled Swat Valley, which has suffered years of Taliban rule and months of battles between Islamist militants and the Pakistan army. The floods destroyed almost everything in the village of Imam Dheri, including houses, shops, vehicles and crops. Residents have reportedly received no assistance from the government, and those who haven't been able to flee by boat are fast running out of food.
Last year, the country's armed forces launched a major offensive against Taliban militants in the Swat Valley, sparking a fight that caused widespread destruction and drove some 2 million people from their homes.
"We saw destruction during the three years of the Taliban and then during their fight with the army. But the destruction we have seen in the last three days is much more," the Associated Press reported a local flood victim as saying.
In such circumstances, victims do not care who delivers the assistance - government or Islamist extremist - as they just want to know how they are going to find their next meal and rebuild their lives.
That is not the government's attitude. "No banned militant or terrorist organization is allowed to take part in relief activities," the Daily Times reported, citing Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa minister Hussain.
The Pakistani army, which has the helicopters, boats and infrastructure needed for relief work, is nevertheless struggling to deliver food, medicine and tents, as are government agencies and several different political parties and welfare organizations. The problem is the sheer magnitude of the disaster, with millions of people in need. On Monday, for instance, only 4,000 people were rescued, including 95 Chinese and 12 Japanese from Pattan and Dassu, and 600 tourists from Kalam.
But many flood victims were unhappy with the response. About 300 people blocked a major road in the hard-hit Nowshera district of Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa to protest at receiving little or no aid.
Commenting on the absence of Zardari, an editorial in The Nation newspaper said:
It is undeniable, though, that the unprecedented destruction and disarray the nation is presently witnessing in Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa - 95% of its area is estimated to be affected - and other parts of the country, is a daunting challenge that would call for an extraordinary response for which we have been found wanting. One factor that could have served as a morale booster to the stricken people would have been the visible role of leaders, both in power and out of it, who should have called off their foreign visits, stopped mutual incriminations and joined hands to come to the rescue of the people. That might have also helped President Zardari improve his precipitously falling popular rating that at present stands at 20%.
Some experts argue that the fundamental problems of development, such as poor infrastructure and lack of functioning communication networks, have contributed to the northwest's vulnerability to the catastrophic effects of natural hazards.
Widespread poverty and the degradation of the environment due to the mismanagement of natural resources also help in transforming a natural event into a human and economic disaster.
"We are facing the worst-ever natural disaster in our history that has pushed the province almost 50 years back," said Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa chief minister Ameer Haider Khan Hoti. "Where are the NGOs, the government and UN agencies?"
They might be missing, but well-organized militant-related groups are not - and neither are the Americans.