Pakistan’s military is under severe criticism for not doing enough to help victims of Saturday’s earthquake.
Survivors in cities and villages across the disaster zone say its relief and rescue operation has been too slow and uncoordinated.
The army’s biggest critics are found in the town of Balakot which has been worst affected by the earthquake.
The army says it is doing all it can, and it still remains the biggest force involved in the relief and rescue work.
‘Too little, too late’
The military’s involvement in Pakistan’s politics has always been questioned.
But never before has it faced such severe criticism by members of the public, as it is doing now for its role in the relief operation.
From Muzaffarabad and Bagh in Pakistan-administered Kashmir to Balakot in the country’s northern region, people have been accusing the army of failing to come to their help in their time of real need.
The criticism was quite sharp in the first couple of days.
But even after the relief goods started to arrive and rescue teams launched a major drive to find possible survivors, many of the victims’ families are saying it is too little - and certainly too late.
The army argues it is doing its best.
In the absence of any proper civilian body or infrastructure to handle a calamity of such a huge magnitude, only the Pakistani army is organised enough to respond at short notice.
No training
This time, too, thousands of its soldiers started to move into the affected areas within a few hours of the earthquake.
Since then the deployment of the troops has continued to increase.
They have been clearing roads, supplying medicines and distributing relief goods.
But most of these soldiers do not have any formal training to handle a post-earthquake situation and they certainly do not have the proper equipment to find and pull out the survivors from the rubble.
So despite their huge presence they have not been very effective.
And hence the continuing criticism by those who have lost their families and friends.
When the global media descended on Pakistan in the wake of the killer quake on 8 October, what the world saw was a relief effort that was perhaps memorable only for its chaos. The helicopters have been called “angels” by villagers What went unnoticed was the tireless effort made by a handful of nameless and faceless people that eventually set the ground rules for what is shaping up into one of the largest relief and rescue operations since the Asian tsunami. These men are the helicopter pilots of Pakistan’s armed forces - perhaps the only people who have delivered more than was expected of them. While those in cities and towns - helped mostly by road transport - have perhaps not even noticed their presence beyond the deafening hum of the rotors on their flying machines, villagers call them angels. “If it hadn’t been for these helicopters, about 600 people in my village who survived would surely have died,” says Abdul Ghafoor, a resident of Chikothi. Chikothi is a border town 62 kilometres northeast of Muzaffarabad. The road is so badly damaged that its restoration would perhaps take several months. Locals say the choppers were there on the second day after the quake.
Sea change
One of the Pakistan army’s most senior helicopter pilots says he saw a “sea change” in the pilots under his command after their first trip to Muzaffarabad. Some of the slopes are so steep… that most of our airdrops just roll down to the river below. Yet each one of the 20-odd chopper pilots employed by the Pakistan army has been doing 12 to 16 hour days since the quake struck. For the first two days, they were even flying during the night - a practice strictly forbidden under normal circumstances. Helicopters arrived in Chikhoti two days after the earthquake Pilots recall those critical 48 hours as a period of “blind flights.” But while that pressure eased with the commissioning of more choppers, the pressure to evacuate the injured has only mounted with time. Pakistan army spokesman Shaukat Sultan says the army’s fleet of 10 Russian-built MI-17s - along with a few smaller ones - has rescued 6,000 people so far. The commanders of these pilots say they will not stop their aid efforts, and when ordered to do so they fight and resist to the point of insubordination. “There were hundreds of people standing amid the rubble, waving to me, motioning me to come down,” says one MI-17 pilot describing his first view of Muzaffarabad - only about four hours after the quake. "But at that stage, we had only been sent out to assess the situation, not to intervene. “Now we can and I am not stopping till I drop.”
Highest battlefield
During their typical 12-hour day, about half the time is spent in the air. It must be tough staying up for such a long time, especially given the hilly terrain. “The terrain is the least of their problems,” says one senior commander. According to him, Pakistani chopper pilots have had extensive experience of hostile conditions because of the conflict in Siachen glacier. “They have been dumping combat supplies at the world’s highest battlefield for more than 20 years now,” he says. The pilots have also had vast experience of operating in hilly areas because of Pakistan’s 25-year-old involvement in Afghanistan. So it is not the terrain that is the issue. “It is the people,” says one pilot. He says one of the trickiest problems he has faced in relief and rescue work so far is airdropping supplies. The hastily put together relief packages in the initial days could weigh in excess of 40 kilos. “Can you believe that old men, women and children would run directly under the choppers, trying to catch the drops,” he says. “From a height of 20 to 25 metres, they would have been crushed under their weight.” Often, the pilots would have to return without dropping supplies - a complaint that was heard from many villagers once the land routes opened. "What could we do? We were carrying only the minimum possible fuel so we could carry more supplies. “And if the people in one village held us up for more than a few minutes, we would just fly on to the next.”
Super mules
Particularly problematic for the choppers was to drop relief supplies at villages - tiny settlements really, often not larger than a dozen houses - close to mountain tops. These areas have traditionally been served - in severe weather conditions for example - by the army’s animal transport units (ATUs) made up of mules. The mules are amazing animals. Each one of them is trained to carry particular kinds of supplies. Those trained in carrying ammunition will not carry guns and the ones trained to carry clothes will not transport food - each of these mules is a specialist. The Pakistani army’s animal transport units (ATUs). And they can find their destination without human assistance. They have been a critical part of military logistics for more than 50 years and the only means of helping villagers trapped in snowstorms in the harsh winter months. The quake has reduced the ATUs to a fraction of their original strength, leaving the relief work entirely dependent on choppers. “Some of the slopes are so steep - especially where levelled clearings have been swept down to the valley by the quake - that most of our airdrops just roll down to the river below,” says one pilot. “We don’t want to hover too close to the survivors either, as the rotors would blow away whatever little shelter they are left with.” Indeed, at the Muzaffarabad chopper base set up inside a stadium, people toppling over as mammoth US Blackhawks touch down or take off is a regular sight.
Thank you
The hardest part by far, say the pilots, is evacuating casualties. One of the hardest hit areas away from the towns and cities is Lipa valley. The quake seems to have inflicted 100% damage here. From the tiniest of sheds to the brigade headquarters, nothing has been left standing. Entire hillsides have caved in. Even the walkways leading up the hills have disappeared. A Medecins Sans Frontieres doctor, who had set up a medical camp at a small clearing, said even a week after the quake, between 100 to 150 people - most with fractures - were still making their way down the hills every day. As the soldiers started bringing in casualties, it was easy to understand the pilots’ consternation. On the 13-minute flight from Lipa valley back to Muzaffarabad, and the 32 minutes from there to Rawalpindi, the copter resembled a nightmare tomb. The wounds of many among them have begun to fester and the aircraft stinks unbearably. The casualties are packed like sardines and when rough winds shake the copter, many of them cry out in pain. “This is the only thing that I still haven’t gotten used to,” says one of the crew. “But we know that there are many more - hundreds or may be thousands - who still await evacuation.” By the evening, the chopper has evacuated 95 casualties and dropped nearly 10 tonnes of relief supplies across the Lipa valley. “No matter how much we do, we know there is still a lot more to be done,” says one of the crew. “How can we even think of giving ourselves a break?”
As assistance and relief goods continue to flow, the Army is focusing on provision of available stock of tents, tarpaulin and warm clothes in minimum possible time to the survivors of the earthquake in the NWFP prior to the advent of winter. According to an ISPR press release, the Army is utilising its available resources to make sure that every victim is provided with shelter, food and medical assistance before the weather in the affected areas gets further cold. The resources being used include fleet of Army helicopters, mules of animal transport keeping into view the inaccessibility of terrain hit by the catastrophe. The helicopters of the Army Aviation have so far made 384 sorties to Mansehra, Garhi Habibullah, Kaghan, Naran, Batgaram, Besham, Shinkiari, Allai, Paras, Munda Gucha, Jared, Juggar, Kawai, Bana Allai, Dir Kot and other far flung areas and dropped 684,872 kilogrammes of relief goods. Around 2,000 causalities were also evacuated from the area.
Over 650 doctors from the Army Medical Corps, friendly countries like the UAE, Italy, Estonia, Iran, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, the Philippines, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Poland, WHO, UNICEF and Red Crescent International and several volunteer organizations have established field hospitals in Balakot, Mansehra and other affected areas and are busy in providing medical assistance to the quake victims. So far, the doctors have attended 90,445 patients and operated 14,770 persons who received severe injuries and fractures in the earthquake. Around 300 patients died in the hospitals. The delivery of relief goods by the Army Aviation is still under way in full swing. Chinook, MH-53, MH-60, UHIH, Black Hawk and MI-17 helicopters flew 20 sorties on Friday from the Chaklala Air Base to the affected areas of the NWFP, including Balakot, Batagram, Mansehra, Besham, Dir Kot, Garhi Habibullah, Palas, and Bana Allai and dropped 447 tents, 3,257 blankets, 1.17 tonnes of ration, 0.99 tonnes of medicines and 6.35 tonnes of other relief goods. Helicopters made 25 more sorties from military’s main operating base at Mansehra to Balakot, Besham, Shinkiari, Allai Barila, Paras, Manda Gucha, Jared, Jugzar, Kwai, Batagram and other areas airlifting 21.6 tonnes of supplies. The transportation of supplies also continued by road and 94 more truckloads were dispatched from Mansehra to remote affected areas. The Army rescue parties were sent with man-pack relief goods. They distributed 1,80,765 kilogrammes foodstuff in 73 villages of Balakot, Battal, Shinkiari, Garhi Habibullah and Batagram sectors. Over 10,000 kilogramme of relief goods was dispatched through animal transport for survivors living in 18 inaccessible affected villages.
Excuses, excuses, excuses, and more BS from you. If I was alone in this saying this, that would be one thing, but it is a common view, except for people in denial like you
No one is saying it is not a huge job, but the inadequate response from Army govt is what people are criticising. Once again, despite the billions spent on the Army and ‘perks’ for its people, it once again lets the country down in its time of need
Instead of lobbying for change and a better effort,you stay in denial. People like you are the reasons things never change in Pakistan
The militant groups seem to have taken a heavy hit in the earthquake, with some of their training camps in Pakistani Kashmir destroyed.
In some villages on the Pakistani side of the border, militant groups have gained prestige, organising relief work long before the arrival of the Pakistani army, whose performance has been widely criticised. That is bad news for its chief, General Musharraf. He has risked unpopularity before, by promising to crack down, at the behest of America and India, on the militants. But the grumbles those promises provoked were trivial compared with the current public anger, as hundreds of thousands of Pakistanis remain at grievous risk and, fairly or not, the army and the government take the blame.
Sanity returns to Balakot as outsiders are kept out
By Rahimullah Yusufzai
Strict measures by the Pakistan Army in Balakot has controlled the influx of visitors to the earthquake-devastated town and discouraged aid-givers from handing out relief goods on the roadside to mostly undeserving affectees. Brigadier Abdul Quddus, head of the military’s forward base at Balakot, told The News that all visitors to the town are now checked at a barrier jointly manned by the Military Police and Frontier Police at the Garhi Habibullah junction. “Identity cards are checked at the barrier and outsiders who are unable to justify their purpose of coming to Balakot are turned back. Trucks and other vehicles loaded with relief goods have to unload the cargo at Balakot as nobody is allowed to take back anything,” he explained. Brig Quddus said the number of outsiders visiting Balakot has come down dramatically and so have the vehicles bringing relief goods. “Only two trucks and two pick-ups with relief goods came to Balakot on Thursday. But let me add that we have enough stock of food here. No doubt tents are in short supply and the demand fairly high. Still we are delivering 200-250 tents daily to the needy families,” he said.
According to Brig Quddus, the focus now was on the landlocked, mountainous areas beyond Balakot in Jared, Kaghan and Naran valleys. “The army has set up 10 roadside bases between Balakot and Jared with each having a doctor and soldiers to cover an area of three to four square kilometres. The soldiers walk on foot in the mountains giving out relief goods to stranded villagers and shifting the injured on stretchers. Mules and helicopters are using pressed into service wherever necessary,” he stated. He said 87 injured villagers were flown by helicopter to Mansehra on Thursday and admitted to the UAE field hospital. He reminded that 53 patients from this hospital had been taken to the UAE for further treatment. Brig Quddus said some villagers from Azad Kashmir living in areas close to the NWFP walked on mountain passes to reach the Balakot area and seek help. He said some of the Kashmiri villagers were provided assistance and the injured removed to Mansehra for treatment. “We feel our soldiers have been able to deliver assistance to all roadside villages beyond Balakot. There are hutments in the mountains that we haven’t accessed physically but almost everywhere airdrops of relief goods have been done,” he informed. He felt villagers had mostly come down from their mountain villages to Balakot to seek assistance. “Our soldiers are coming across mountain communities who are unwilling to leave their villages until they have harvested their maize crop. The villagers says they would come down to Balakot once the harvesting is over,” he said. He said the troops delivering aid in remote mountainous areas also collect data about deaths and injuries. “Our figures for Balakot area todate are 13,000-plus dead and more than 8,000 injured. There would be others buried by relations and survivors. The death toll could reach 20,000,” he added.
Answering a question, Brig Quddus said 3,700 dislocated people had been accommodated in thee four relief camp set up by military in the outskirts of Balakot. He said a number of Balakotis were living in the town near their destroyed homes and protecting valuables and other belongings. “The soldiers are under orders not to remove debris and dig up destroyed buildings unless the owners turn up and authorize the digging. On Thursday, soldiers helped four owners to dig up the damaged strictures of their homes. After the initial shock and having to bury their dead and treat the injured, owners are now coming back to Balakot,” he explained. Brig Quddus refuted reports about looting of homes and jewellery shops in Balakot and said it was all hearsay. He said owners have reported no such incident until now. He also denied reports that outsiders including Afghan refugees and Kohistanis had severed dead women’s hands to steal bangles and other jewellery. “An old man also made this complaint to President General Pervez Musharraf when he visited Balakot the other day. I called this man afterwards and asked him as to when and where did this incident take place. The old man replied that he read it in a newspaper and that the incident probably happened in Muzaffarabad. This explains that such reports aren’t true,” Brig Quddus stressed. He said there was no longer any stench in Balakot as all bodies have been retrieved and buried. “There was stench in one of the destroyed building. When soldiers dug the place it happened to be a poultry farm where dead birds were giving the bad odour. The place was levelled and now there is no stench,” said Brig Quddus. Besides, he said aerial spray was regularly done to remove stench and prevent spread of disease. He said no epidemic occurred due to prompt measures with soldiers cleaning up the place and even removing the used clothing that aid-divers brought for the affectees and was now littered all over Balakot. “We have an Infantry Battalion and an Engineers Battalion deployed in Balakot. Our field military hospital is also operating and so are health outlets runs by non-governmental organizations and the foreigners. I think we are now equipped to cater to meet any emergency,” he concluded.
The article from the economist gives few details as to in which way the military has failed to respond adequately, whereas Reza Pahlavi and Silly Billy's articles give a lot of detail on tremendous efforts made by the army.
When balancing specifically cited claims about the army's strong performance against vague claims of weak performance, in this thread there is much more evidence presented that the army is doing a terrific job.
There is no doubt that the militants did react faster. However, they are smaller organisations that are easier to coordinate and move due to their lack of scale. The army has many more resources than the militants, but is hampered by the bureacracy and many different lines of communication that slow down large organisations, but are the only way of ensuring they act in a coordinated and effective manner.
Two divisions of the Pakistan Army — one each in Azad Kashmir and Mansehra — have been deployed to accelerate the pace of rescue and relief activities in quake-hit areas, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said on Tuesday. “In addition, several brigades are also being deployed in earthquake affected areas to carry out relief work and provide food and other support to the people,” the prime minister said, while addressing a press conference at the Prime Minister Secretariat. Minister of State for Culture, Sports and Youth Affairs Senator Muhammad Ali Durrani, Chairman Prime Minister’s Inspection Commission and Federal Relief Commissioner Maj-Gen Farooq Ahmed and Director-General ISPR Maj-Gen Shaukat Sultan were also present. The prime minister said the purpose of major redeployment of troops is to spread them in each and every affected area, including the remote villages. He added that 100 or so troops would be stationed after every 10 kilometres to reach out to all the affected people. He said that approximately 23,000 people had died and 51,000 injured. “These include 432 Army personnel, who lost their lives and 709 injured,” he added. The prime minister, controlling his emotions while detailing the casualties, said the number of casualties might be higher as reports are gathered from remote areas. “We are in phase of damage assessment and it could increase,” he added. Asked about estimates of the people rendered homeless, he said, according to initial estimates, about 2.5 million people have become homeless and provision of shelter for them is one of the major challenges ahead. Giving details of donations from international and local community, the prime minister said the foreign financial pledges have crossed $300 million and more is pledged while domestic contributions were to the tune of Rs 600 million in first two days. “Our top most priority for the financial assistance is food, tents, blankets, medicines and medical equipment,” he said, thanking people of Pakistan and the international community for overwhelming response to the appeal for assistance. The prime minister said in addition to the existing hospitals, 14 field hospitals have also been established in the affected areas. “These include six by the Army and eight by foreign medical teams while six more field hospitals are being set up in these areas,” he said, adding that in addition 11 foreign medical teams are also assisting in various areas. The prime minister said the Health Ministry has prepared a plan for spray in the affected-areas after retrieval and burial of bodies. He added the federal government on Tuesday released Rs 500 million each for Azad Kashmir and NWFP governments to enable them expedite relief activities. He said the relief commissioners are also being appointed in the four provinces and Azad Kashmir to coordinate the relief and reconstruction activities. He said the government, through active cooperation of the people, is mobilising all resources to reach out to the victims. Shaukat said that major roads in the affected areas, including Kohala-Muzaffarabad and Mansehra-Muzaffarabad, had opened. Similarly, he said, access to Balakot has also been restored and work is in progress to rehabilitate other roads. “Now dozens of trucks are going to the affected areas daily to distribute relief goods there,” he added.
The prime minister said that several satellite PCOs would become operational in the affected areas on Wednesday and a number of multinational companies had offered provision of satellite phones for use in the affected areas. He said 35 to 40 helicopters are engaged in the operation. “Now that the roads to major cities have been restored, the helicopters would be used to carry relief goods to the inaccessible and remote areas,” he said. About reconstruction phase, the prime minister said in the short-term there would be temporary repair and opening up of the areas followed by medium-term plans of rehabilitation of roads, government buildings, schools, hospitals, powers and water supplies and telecom services. About MMA President Qazi Hussain Ahmed’s offer of cooperation, he appreciated the gesture and welcomed offers of all the opposition parties. Regarding the Indian offer for financial assistance, he said Pakistan has no problem in accepting the offer.
APP adds: Aziz said 15 specialised international rescue teams and 11 foreign medical teams were operating in different affected areas. He said that Muzaffarabad and Balakot were the worst hit major cities, while hundreds of villages were destroyed. He said the Army had recovered 40 children from the collapsed school building in Balakot and they have been shifted to the field hospital. Responding to a question, he said there was no need for redeployment of troops from their positions along the Pak-Afghan border, as there were plenty of Army personnel in the affected areas. He said the major damage occurred in Muzaffarabad, Bagh and Rawalakot in Azad Kashmir and in Balakot, Mansehra, Batgram and Abbottabad in the NWFP. “Devastation is at its extreme in Balakot, large parts of Muzaffarabad have been severely damaged while settlements and villages around these towns have also been severely hit.” The prime minister said the relief and later reconstruction and rehabilitation works are “mammoth challenges” facing the government. “But we are determined and moving ahead with full vigour and the entire government machinery is working round the clock to help the people,” he added. Shaukat said the rehabilitation of the children who lost their parents was a major task ahead and measures were being taken in this regard. “The trauma aspect of the affected people is very serious for those who lost loved ones and their whole life’s earnings, but we will share their pain and sorrow,” he said.
Interesting points, however the performance is being compared to that of other armies, in other natural disasters. There is no doubt ther is some good work being put in by the Army, but there is also plenty of good work being put in by thousands of civilians. The point is the Army is not doing a job , but not as good a job as it should be doing.
How can you say there are ‘vague’ claims when there are reports posted all the time filled with specifics. No offense to you, but some of the reasons I have heard are just plain excuses. Other countries Armies have reacted better in such situations,unfortunately.
That is not correct RealDeal. Other armies have indeed been criticised by vested elements in recent disasters. The US military was blasted for it’s reaction to Hurricane Katrina, the Indonesian military was heavily criticised for it’s relief efforts in Sumatra following the Tsunami, and so is the Indian military in it’s slow if non existent help to people in occupied Kashmir. Considering that the Pakistan Earthquake is bigger than Katrina and the entire Tsunami distasters put together, the Pakistani military has done pretty darned well. mAd_ScIeNtIsT ji has made a very sensible and factual case. :k:
If you recall in Katrina, it was Bush who was criticised for not sending the Army in quicker, the Army itself did a good job as soon as they got the green light.And Bush is hardly a leader you want to emulate!
I had no comment for the first week or so, but my opinions come from speaking with those directly on the ground, as well as reports.
Here is yet another report on this matter.One does have to ask why so many people in the know keep saying this.
But the fury of the elements is also a handy excuse. When human ineptitude is exposed, as in Pakistan where the government — including the army, by now the avowed vanguard of Pakistani society — was leaden on its feet and seemed overwhelmed by the catastrophe, it is easy to cite nature’s wrath as an excuse for twiddling one’s thumbs. This excuse is bandied about the more readily in a fatalistic society where the first response to tragedy of any kind is: God’s will.
Apart from the destruction caused by Hurricane Katrina, one of its more insidious consequences has been to provide a permanent alibi to bumbling governments everywhere. If help was so late in coming to the citizens of New Orleans, don’t be surprised if it is late in coming to, say, the victims of Pakistan’s earthquake.
George Bush, however, has not escaped pillorying for his response to Katrina and there is no reason why Pakistan’s military overlords, who run the country and on whose desk the buck stops, should escape criticism, or worse, for their response to Pakistan’s northern earthquake.
What to talk of the earthquake as a whole, the entire Pakistani administration seemed paralyzed by just one event in Islamabad: the collapse of a wing of the patently ill-constructed Margalla Towers. Everyone arrived, including police, CDA officials, army personnel, but to what effect? Only to put on a stunning display of collective ineptitude: before the mass of concrete, the entire machinery of government helpless. The debris began to be explored and some survivors pulled out when a British team, armed with sensors and concrete-cutting tools, seemingly unavailable in the whole of Pakistan, arrived all the way from the UK.
This was the public face of the disaster that first day of the earthquake but with all the helplessness and hand-wringing to be seen, it wasn’t an edifying sight. As if the confusion on site wasn’t enough, General Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz arrived to add some of their own, both making inane remarks before the assembled cameras and generally getting in the way of the relief efforts.
Pakistan has no problem importing all the bullet-proof Mercedes limos it needs for its ruling bonzes. But it lacks the resources and know-how to handle the collapse of a single high-rise. And if this was Islamabad, imagine the plight up north away from the cameras.
There’s no getting away from it: relief of any kind has been scandalously slow to reach the worst-hit areas. Forget remote and inaccessible villages. Even on the fourth day of the earthquake very little had arrived in Muzaffarabad, the capital of Azad Kashmir, which gave all the appearances of a bombed-out city. And there was no word of relief to Bagh or Rawalakot, what to talk of the villages in between.
All right — to run through the usual excuses — coordination is difficult and mobilizing resources takes time. But for the first few days, with the inhabitants of the affected areas losing everything, what they needed were the essentials of life: water, some food, some blankets. Even if relief convoys couldn’t make it in a hurry, some semblance of supplies, even water, could have been air-dropped. Nothing was. Journalists, both local and foreign, made it to the worst-hit areas, no one, it seems, from the Pakistani administration.
As a Reuters report puts it plainly enough — this on Tuesday, the fourth day after the earthquake: “The only aid anyone from Bagh has seen from the government since the earthquake struck has been on television… Three days after the disaster the people of this once-prosperous little town set deep in the hills of Azad Kashmir have all but given up hope… ‘The government is only showing us the relief on television,’ said Abdul Razzaq, a storekeeper in the town. ‘We haven’t seen a drop of water or medicine coming to us, not even a single grain.’”
Criticism can run out of control, especially when delivered from the comfort of an armchair far from the scene of action or disaster, but in this case it is more than apt when the failure of government and armed forces — the armed forces in Musharraf’s Pakistan eclipsing the government — has been both comprehensive and visible.
Utterly baffling for most Pakistanis is why the army was not there sooner at the disaster points, if only to dole out sympathy and first aid. After all, Balakot and Azad Kashmir are difficult but not impossible to reach. And it isn’t exactly as if troops had to be airlifted from Islamabad and elsewhere. Azad Kashmir commands some of the densest concentration of troops anywhere in Pakistan. Where were they?
This ineptitude is all the more striking when set against the response of ordinary people. Money and relief goods are being collected all over the country and sent to the stricken areas haphazardly, without help or guidance from the authorities and often with little idea of geography: where exactly to go and how.
A leadership with a greater sense of national responsibility would have forsaken Islamabad, eschewed empty and meaningless television — there being no television in the quake-hit areas — and encamped in Balakot and Muzaffarabad. The corps commanders — in the case of Mansehra and Balakot, commander Peshawar corps, in the case of Muzaffarabad, commander 10 corps based in Rawalpindi — should have moved to the disaster areas the latest by Saturday afternoon to take personal charge of the relief operations. If they did no one saw them.
The Peshawar corps commander — he of the Waziristan operations — Lt Gen Safdar Hussain, has earned a reputation for the ill-advised remark. He lived up to his reputation again by saying that the number of casualties was probably exaggerated. As for the ‘Pindi corps commander, he must have been well camouflaged in his ops room because there was very little of him to be seen.
No doubt, excuses will be trotted out but few will do because the ineptitude of government and military was played out on television for the world to see. Instant, 24 hours TV may not be an unmitigated blessing but whether it is a tsunami, a hurricane or an earthquake, it is a spur to action when it homes in on delay and incompetence. Far from being in the way, television helps clear the way.
Incidentally, not only CNN and BBC have done a wonderful job. Some of the Pakistani channels have been equally good, quick to arrive and cover both the extent of the disaster and the inadequacy of the official response. But for independent television how would we have known all this so quickly?
George Bush has reason to rue the coverage of Hurricane Katrina. It showed the emperor without his clothes. President Musharraf will have plenty of reasons to rue the coverage of the Pakistani earthquake because it has shown the entire circus of Pakistani government at its most incompetent.
Bush’s approval ratings already on a roll were hit further. Musharraf doesn’t have to bother about approval ratings but surely the aura of bumbling and dithering the world has seen can’t be very flattering.
And the timing of it, coinciding almost exactly with the sixth anniversary of the Oct 99 coup which brought this dispensation to power. Anniversaries are occasions for celebration, real or fake, not for such relentless exposure of weakness and failure. Successive military interventions have elevated the military to the status of premier state institution. This disaster has shown the premier institution at its most vulnerable, a circumstance which could lead more people to ask disturbing questions. If ever there was a time for wider national consultation it is this. The inadequacy of a single-man dispensation — aided by two or three close advisers, no more — has been exposed like never before. The nation has closed ranks, the opposition parties setting aside their differences as Pakistan copes with this tragedy. Question is, can Musharraf transcend the politics of self-interest and strive for genuine national reconciliation? It’s a safe bet he won’t.
Pakistanis are not just willing to give, they are desperate to give. But they are concerned that what they offer should go into clean hands and reach the needy. This is the paradox we face: a rousing of national spirit but, with it, a loss of faith in government and other institutions. In other words, a huge disconnect between people and government. What’ll bridge the divide? Certainly not one-man rule.
Again, that is incorrect. Bush, the military, FEMA and the local authorities were all criticised by the people in those area’s, as were the Indonesians following the Tsunami earlier, and the same with the Indian’s in Kashmir now. Even in those places NGO’s and relief groups reached before the armies did, and the reasons why have accurately been provided by mAd_ScIeNtIsT. As I said considering that the Pakistan Earthquake is by far bigger than any disaster the world has seen in a long, long time the Pakistani military is performing superbly.
The relief and rescue work has been mainly dominated by military at the one end and then by the general public while the rest, including various organisations, were way behind in this race against time. Pakistan Army made it a point of prestige to rise to the occasion. Hence it was on the forefront, encroaching even the space of other groups and organisations; even the political parties blamed for not getting their acts together in the whole crisis. May be this also speaks for the absence of political leadership from the troubled spot. Most Kashmiri leaders were right when they asked through media where the hell all the leading lights of government or opposition have gone. “Where is Qazi Hussain Ahmad or Amin Fahim,” AJ&K Forest Minister quizzed in one recent interview.](http://www.nation.com.pk/daily/oct-2005/22/columns2.php)
WITH the relief operation in full swing in the earthquake-hit areas of Azad Kashmir and the NWFP, a semblance of order seems to be emerging from the medley of activities that was witnessed in the days immediately after the calamity struck. A relief commissioner has been appointed to coordinate the relief and rehabilitation efforts. With the Pakistan Army in the forefront of the massive operations that are underway, it is logical that an army officer should head the relief commission. In the absence of a crisis management body, the government had to fall back on the armed forces, the only institution with an organization that could rise to the challenge. In spite of its own losses, the army is doing a creditable job. True, there are still areas where relief aid has not reached —said to be about 20 per cent as of Monday — and there is a shortfall of tents that are needed to protect the homeless from the inclement weather, a lot is being done. In fact that has kept the humanitarian spirit of the public and the volunteers alive.
Now the prime minister has unveiled a 12-point reconstruction plan to involve all agencies in the relief, recovery and reconstruction process. This is a significant move. First it will involve the civil sector of the administration fully in the relief operations as should have been the case from the start had it been equipped with the capacity of undertaking a task of this nature and magnitude. But it is never too late to begin. Secondly, it is time not only to coordinate the efforts to avoid duplication and gaps, and to ensure the optimization of efforts and transparency at all levels. This is important because widespread compassion has brought in its wake humanitarian aid in the form of relief goods, funds and volunteers from inside and outside the country. These can be maximized if they are organized and the efforts strategized. If this is not done many areas will be flooded with assistance while others will be starved of all relief aid. According to the relief commissioner, four billion rupees has been collected in the president’s relief fund and foreign assistance to the tune of $528.2 million has been pledged. This must be used according to a plan and must be done transparently and with a sense of accountability.
The strategy defined by Mr Shaukat Aziz is logical and sensible. It takes into account the basic needs of the affected people — provide them temporary shelter and then move them to permanent settlements. There is also the plan to gear up medical/trauma treatment — the doctors’ response was the most spontaneous and overwhelming — and arrange for transitional schools and offices. There is also the need to attend to the problem of the numerous children who have been separated from their families or orphaned by the tragedy. The aim should be to normalize life as soon as possible. Let the reconstruction work be participatory since the people who are to be rehabilitated know their needs best. While all this is being done, the government should involve its statistical agencies to collect data on the population affected and assess the damage to property. With independent television channels making wild and exaggerated guesses, one has only a vague idea of the loss and the scale of the relief assistance needed.
Those accusations are actually from Asma Jahangir, not exactly a great fan of the military. The accusations have been roundly denied, and suitably explained as well.
Liaquat Hussain, deputy commissioner of Muzaffarabad, also denied the report. He said the civil government had set up a registration system for relief goods coming through official channels and indicated that Human Rights Watch may have misunderstood what it saw. “It is part of the system. We have a registration location … where we do check and register the supplies coming through the official channel, and then forward them to the most deserving locations in the affected areas,” he said.
We watch on TV that Pak army throws four or five packets from truck and take part, when there are hundreds & thousands are waiting for food and help… trucks leave and people quarrel for packets…
