Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf announced a 2 billion rupee package for the flood victims of Sindh while on a day-long visit to Jacobabad and Kashmore-Kandhkot-affected districts. He is also reported to have taken an aerial view of other affected parts of Sindh. The Prime Minister directed the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) to provide at least 25,000 tents, food, medicines and other necessities to the victims.
In addition, the Prime Minister is reported to have expressed his sorrow that the people of Sindh habr once again become victim of a natural disaster and directed that the same relief package be finalised for flood-hit south Punjab and Balochistan as for Sindh.
Questions are being raised about the financial capacity of the federal government to deal with the destruction wrought by floods both in terms of compensation for human life lost and infrastructure (public and privately-owned). The burgeoning budget deficit, the contraction of our exports due to global recession, the ongoing energy crisis and the law and order situation, which is compelling industrial units to relocate in other countries accounts for rising unemployment in our urban centres. The floods will account for unemployment in rural areas. Add the factor of reluctance of multilaterals and bilaterals to extend assistance due to the inability of the government to implement politically challenging reforms during an election year as well as poor governance that is leading our state-owned entities to increasingly rely on state support and one has the elements of an economy that is tail spinning towards a default. There has been no attempt to increase revenue or indeed to reduce current expenditure to arrest the budget deficit. The flood losses especially with respect to farm output would, no doubt, put a further strain on economy. However given the fact that Federal Finance Minister Dr Hafeez Sheikh accompanied the Prime Minister on his visit to flood-affected areas lends credence to the view that the assistance of 2 billion rupees to Sindh was announced after necessary deliberations; however the fact that assistance to south Punjab and Balochistan was not quantified leads many to conclude that assistance to these two areas may actually not be forthcoming.
Be that as it may, it is relevant to note that the performance of the provincial disaster management authorities - in Sindh, Balochistan and Punjab, varied greatly. According to a survey undertaken with the assistance of Ministry of Climate Change and NDMA, Business Recorder concluded that the Sindh and Balochistan disaster management authorities performed poorly in terms of arranging food, shelter and clean drinking water for the flood victims. When asked these two entities claimed that funds had been made available to them on time.
However, district management authorities lamented that funds had not been released to them to enable them to undertake rescue and relief activities. The Minister for Climate Change demanded an explanation from the Sindh Disaster Management Authority (SDMA) as to why funds had not been released to the affected districts to which he received no reply. This was in contrast to the Punjab affected areas even though the amount released by the Punjab government was not sufficient to meet the scale of flood destruction.
One would have hoped that the Prime Minister had been made aware of the performance of the provincial disaster management authorities and had taken precautions to ensure that the money earmarked for the flood victims actually reaches them in a timely manner. To give more to an entity that is not passing on the funds to district governments requires disciplinary action against the concerned officials and the Prime Minister needs to focus his government's attention on first ensuring that funds earmarked for the affected people actually reach them prior to announcing additional packages.
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