FROM A RINGSIDE SEAT

The October 8 earthquake struck rather early in the day for the Bagh Girls Degree College. Only 11 students had reached the college library by then. For the next four days they lay buried under the debris of the fallen roof, crying for help.
They must have cried out their names, cried out "we are alive", but their parents and others failed to rescue them. They must have cried for water. One of them must have died first, then another, and then cries no more. That is the story of Kashmir. Today that is the story of every home, every school and every other place. I want to talk about them.
That was PPPP's Chaudhry Manzoor Ahmad on the floor of the National Assembly on Tuesday as the debate on the national disaster continued. Rescue matters most in the first few hours. But the rescue operation started late by 72 hours. Is there a minister who can tell me why the National Highway Authority (NHA) staff and the Capital Development Authority (CDA) personnel were sent home the day earthquake struck instead of asking them to join the rescue efforts, he asked from the rows of empty chairs that the ministers are supposed to occupy. Who has failed the people of Pakistan? Why not to institute an inquiry into this failure? He asked.
Then he narrated another story suggesting there never ever was a strategy to face the challenge of a national disaster. He met a student from Muzaffarabad - one of the five who escaped alive from the geology class of 50 in the Muzaffarabad University - in a private hospital.
The boy knew that the city they lived was targeted by a massive earthquake, the student told Chaudhry Manzoor, adding his teacher who too lay buried under the collapsing roof had seen a study that had warned of the impending apocalypse. "But did we prepare ourselves to face the disaster. We made atom bombs. We made missiles. But has any of our missiles rescued the entombed students?"
Manzoor Ahmad Chaudhry also took exception to appointment of generals as heads of relief and rehabilitation committees, asking why civilians like the concerned minister Faisal Saleh Hayat and Kashmir Committee Chairman Hamid Nasir Chattha were not considered for the job. He questioned how come the armed forces and brotherly country Saudi Arabia that are supposed to having large quantity of spare tents were not approached.
To meet the huge reconstruction cost the government should apply 20 percent cut on defence budget and also seek 10 to 20 years freeze on the payment of foreign debts. Given that the Chinese have expertise in meeting the earthquake-triggered exigencies the government must review its Foreign Policy to find out the cause why Beijing response is lukewarm, he said.
Two other speeches that merit mention here were by Chaudhry Nisar Ali and Farid Paracha. Lack of credibility - because all state power is deposited in one person - had caused the 'diluted' reaction to the earthquake disaster both by the government and the assembly.
The opposition had pledged its unreserved support to the government on the very first day yet the opposition is being sidelined and not taken into confidence. Foreign forces, that is the Nato troops, were already inside Pakistan, but this House has not been formally informed. Not even the cabinet was taken into confidence, Chaudhry Nisar Ali argued, posing the question can our own forces not capable of handling the situation?
The opposition leader questioned the wisdom of making beggarly statements for foreign help "as if we have lost dignity and self-esteem". In the absence of genuine leadership in the country there is confusion all around, he said, adding that most of the visits to the disaster-hit areas by the government leaders are more in the nature of seeking photo-opportunity.
Nisar also questioned the appointment of generals to positions in the relief and rehabilitation operations because the likelihood that they can be held accounted for the billions of rupees those are going into their outfits.
After a short but scathing attack on the 'absence' of writ of the government Farid Paracha made some specific suggestions, including proposal that the helicopters should be separately earmarked for use by the military, NWFP government and NGOs.
He also suggested that loans and taxes of the affected people should be waived off and they should be given interest-free loans. The presently practised "Save Islamabad" from the influx of earthquake displaced people policy should be abandoned and pre-quake and post-quake satellite pictures be secured to make realistic assessment of the damage to help in completing survey in time fixed by the Parliament.
Another suggestion made by Paracha was that the PIA should make special arrangements to bring tents and other relief goods from abroad and that the Public Accounts Committee should look into the damages caused to the public property.
Of course, the opposition members tend to dominate the debate in the House, but there were quite a few interesting interventions from the treasury side - by ministers to clarify government position on some of the issues raised by the members from the other side and by Speaker Amir Hussain, quite often breaking their momentum.
One such intervention came up at the very outset, when Rehana Mashhadi who took on Information Minister Sheikh Rashid for what she called hoodwinking the truth by selective exposure of the House committee's meeting the day before on PTV. "I do not hanker for projection, but I have a status as chairperson of the House committee that demands exposure. As she said that the backbenchers thumped desks giving out that they too are not happy with Sheikh Rashid.
Soon everybody wanted to take his or her pound of flesh from the body of poor information minister, who was not there in the House. And, not unsurprisingly, there was no one from the government to defend the minister, not even the speaker. Gule Farkhanda complained the bureaucracy wouldn't let her work. PPPP's Nayyar Bukhari said the way the information minister conducted himself on the television when clip of the committee meeting was shown proved that he committed contempt of the House.
Lady member Khursheed Afgan made the most deadly attack, however. "I wonder why Sheikh Rashid is so much fond of his own publicity. Even President Musharraf noticed it when at Balakot "Sheikh Rashid Zindabad" slogans were raised. I am ready to move a resolution against the minister. But Amir Hussain took the wind out of the sails of Sheikh Rashid's distracters by ruling that the minister should explain his point of view in the House.