An unmistakable impression tends to arise from the lingering plight of the flood victims that the political leadership has failed to deliver, spectacularly and on all fronts, on its basic responsibility to protect people's lives and properties. Even if its inadequacy - that the flooding is too massive and its aftermath is beyond government's normal capacity to manage - is factored in, the fact remains that the failure is too obvious.
It's fundamentally a failure of vision and decision. Scandalously, three weeks after the catastrophe first struck in the upper reaches of the Swat valley, there is still no mentionable plan in hand, yet, to stem the tide of floods, much less a serious thought-out programme to deal with the post-flood complications - except for photo-op visits to fake relief camps and medical centres. As if by design, the civilian rulers seem to be leaving the field open to the military. And the military is there on the ground doing a tremendous job. It has rescued some hundreds of thousands of stranded people, reopened a number of badly damaged roads and bridges, dispatched hundreds of doctors with medicines and even delivered more than a thousand tons of food supplies to the starving flood victims from its own rations. No surprise then that while the civilian leadership has yet to earn its first credit mark, the national media is full of lavish public praise for the military.
But of late, the military is being forced to assume an additional responsibility; to effect reconciliation between political leaders, whose mismatch of priorities is fast acquiring dangerous dimensions. Not only did Prime Minister Gilani not succeed in winning support for a commission 'comprising men of integrity' to oversee the flood control management, but he is accused of being less than fair in rendering assistance to Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. Then a dispute has erupted between Sindh and Balochistan over the breach in an embankment, allegedly ordered by a federal minister. That Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif is being accused of 'stealing the show' in Punjab is yet another disturbing situation.
So, over the last few days Army Chief General Kayani has met President Asif Zardari, Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif and former prime minister Mir Zafarullah Jamali, who a day earlier had named two federal ministers, whom he said had diverted floodwater to his area in order to save their lands and farm houses. To quote from Pak Army's chief spokesman Major General Athar Abbas' statement to the Washington Post.
"There are signs that people are restive; if not addressed, this could balloon and would create a security situation in the areas where the government has not taken care of the peoples' needs." Having tried hard to neutralise Pakistan's concerns about the ever-lurking Indian threat, the United States is now worried that should the Pakistan military get bogged down in flood-related problems, its anti-Taliban focus would weaken.
Therefore, US Ambassador Anne Patterson has no doubts about the credibility of Pakistan government. "We have confidence in the government's ability to deliver," she told reporters at her residence. Also, of some concern to her government is the reported relief work undertaken by some of the banned outfits.
That's a misperception, given that quite a few NGOs affiliated with banned outfits, have an admirable public service track record, particularly since the 2005 earthquake tragedy. One would be profoundly naïve to think that in a calamitous situation, as Pakistan is facing today, the armed forces would stand aside and play second fiddle to politicians, who have earned nothing but public reproach and ridicule. The fact is that the lead role in fighting the menace of the devastating flood and its horrendous aftermath is with the Pak Army, and it should be accorded administrative recognition.
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