By Asad Mufti [Translated from Urdu by New Age Islam Edit Desk]
The experts participating in the international conference on weather issues held by the UN in Mexico tried their best to establish a financial fund for the conservation against weather. On the occasion, Pakistan tried its best to get the tag of the most insecure country in terms of weather as Bangladesh, submerging island nations and the starving African nations have been declared insecure. (Please do not consider Pakistan’s nuclear power status here). According to an observation of the government of Pakistan, 79 out of 124 districts of the country have been inundated by the floods; crops on 17000 sq. kilometer of land have been destroyed. According to the estimates of the World Bank, the total loss is around 854.9 billion and the estimated cost or reconstruction is 677.8 billion dollar whereas the Information Secretary of the government Fouzia Wahab has told the representative of the UN that Rs 5 trillion were needed for the flood affected people. During the Weather conference in Mexico it was told that 20 per cent of the Pakistani land was under water. Four lakh houses of the country were still under water. There is still 3 to 4 feet water in three districts of Sindh and 2 districts of Balochistan. The newspapers and periodicals in Europe are writing tongue in cheek that the reason for the international community not helping Pakistan’s flood affected people is understandable. In their view, if 67 per cent of a poor country’s budget is snatched away in the name of defence and there is even no audit for it, whose foreign minister says that India and Israel are the two countries whose aid workers will not get Pakistani visas for the help of the billions of the flood affected people and where the greedy generals, corrupt politicians and bureaucrats scramble for piling up money and even a few helicopters cannot be managed in times of need, the aid and help are only a waste of money. A German weekly wrote that when India being a neighbour announced an aid of 50 million, Pakistan showed unwillingness to accept it. Shamelessly, the Pakistani politicians linked the aid to Kashmir and said that the amount was very small. Then the statement of the Foreign Minister came saying Pakistan will accept India’s contribution. The language suggested that by accepting India’s aid Pakistan was doing a favour to India. Around the same time Pakistan’s Home Minister said that they would accept the aid if it came through the UN. Then it was said that Pakistani people will show their displeasure if India’s help was accepted. Next statement said that if the name of India on the aid was not mentioned, it would be better. This shameful process became so lengthy that would embarrass the country offering the aid. Some sections are presenting the argument that the international community is not extending help because Pakistan is an Islamic state. In my opinion, Pakistan being an Islamic state cannot be the reason as most of the countries affected by Tsunami were Muslim that received help from the world. The World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, The Development Bank of the UNO and other donor agencies of the world have certain doubts and concerns. That is the reason a Dutch newspaper had written recently that Islamabad’s informed circles are aware what kind of discussions the donor agencies have been holding with the government. They are very concerned about the right use of the money. They want that every aspect from estimation of the damages to the use of aid funds should be transparent. These agencies want a system that can guarantee zero level of corruption or misuse of the aid amount. I am also not ready to accept that the incompetency of our diplomats posted all over the world is the reason. I personally am aware that Pakistan’s ambassador in Holland Aizaz Ahmad Choudhary is one of the most competent diplomats in the world. A big amount of 1 lakh 55 thousand Euros have been sent to the country due to the efforts of Mr Chaudhary. Dutch people and the government have also donated a sum of 27 million Euros for the flood affected of Pakistan. It is because of the patriotism, vision and sincerity of the ambassador of Pakistan that he could make the government, the people and the authorities of Holland realize the gravity and volume of the tragedy in Pakistan. Both the institutions meant for relief and reconstruction and the responsibility to spend billions of dollars are headed by generals or under the generals. On the paper that the office of the relief work is in the PMO and is under an officer of secretary level but the truth is known to all. The setup is not encouraging or trustworthy for the international community by any standards. The international donor agencies have said in Geneva that the flood affected people of Pakistan needed help for at least two years. The statements of the Red Cross and the Red Crescent suggest even after four months of the occurrence of the tragedy, 2 million affected people are living in camps. The Chairman Lieutenant General of The National Disaster Management Authority, Nadeem Ahmad said that Pakistan was in the grip of natural calamities and it was difficult to emerge from them at the moment. In my view, in order to wriggle out of this disaster, we should honestly tell the world about our economy. The Wealth Tax should be re-imposed to fulfil our needs from our financial resources. Tax should be imposed on agricultural income. Unnecessary constructive projects should be abandoned. The luxury of the construction of the GHQ in Islamabad should be abandoned as Makhdoom Javed Hashmi has demanded that the GHQ being constructed at a cost of 15 trillion dollar in Islamabad should be stopped and the amount should be dedicated for the rehabilitation and welfare of the flood affected people. The purchase of F-16 fighter jets should be stopped and the stolen public money amounting to billions of dollars that have been transferred abroad should be brought back. In my opinion, for the immediate rehabilitation of the affected, $ 300 crore is needed whereas 30 billion dollars will be needed for the complete rehabilitation. According to analysts, the growth rate will come down to zero due to the floods and the inflation will reach 25 per cent. Moreover, the LIO report has also indicated that as a result of the floods, Pakistan will also lose $2 billion of annual income. 11 lakh jobs have been lost because of the floods. The question also arises how the recovery of such a huge loss is possible. How can the economy that is already based on debts, foreign aids and donations and is short of resources save itself from a big loss. It is therefore anticipated that the God’s own country will see more unemployment and rising prices. The environmentalists have warned that the environmental changes will cause even greater disasters causing greater damages and losses. How true these predictions are can only be told by the geologists or the maulvis who believe that the floods are the results of our own sins. Source: Sahafat, New Delhi URL: http://www.newageislam.com/NewAgeIslamUrduSection_1.aspx?ArticleID=3931 
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11:45 PM
Moderate Islamist here
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