President Zardari, during his scheduled meeting with Ban Ki Moon, the United Nations Secretary General, urged the international community to extend emergency assistance to the growing number of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Pakistan as a direct consequence of the ongoing military operations. The latest numbers being cited are over a million and rising.
President Zardari was quoted as saying: "We're appealing to the world, myself and the Secretary General, to draw attention on the human catastrophe that is taking place. These civilians are losing their crops; they are losing their earnings, their livelihoods and their homes, so we want the world to help us. The Secretary General has been kind enough to accept our appeal to him and he is going to appeal to the world with us jointly to help Pakistan." John Holmes, Head of the United Nations Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs has appealed for 165.9 million dollars emergency assistance for the IDPs.
United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has already earmarked $64.2 million that would provide over 97,000 tons of food to about 600,000 beneficiaries who fled Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) and some districts of North West Frontier Province (NWFP). The US has already announced 4.9 billion dollars for the IDPs and is considering increasing this amount.
One would assume that more pledges would be made as the plight of the hapless IDPs is beamed across the world by the international media and few would challenge extending aid to Pakistan at this time - be they foreign governments or the private sector.
Given the scale of the economic problems facing the country today, which forced Pakistan to go on a stringent International Monetary Fund programme, there is a dearth of resources that can be realistically targeted to meet the emergent needs of the IDPs; thus, the international appeal by the President. Be that as it may, on the domestic front camps have been set up but the consensus is that they are inadequate to meet the numbers that are streaming in from the troubled areas.
Of particular concern is the lack of electricity, medical assistance and drinking water in these camps. There is also a concern at the government level that charges of misappropriation and/or mismanagement of the relief effort may be levied which accounts for the government allowing WFP to administer assistance. It is hoped that evaluation of the per dollar cost of administering assistance by the WFP be determined to ensure that over 95 cents of each dollar of assistance reaches the IDPs.
The Cabinet members have made a little contribution to the relief fund either one month salary or a multiple of a month's salary while government employees have, according to their income level, agreed to give up one day's salary to a multiple of that for relief effort. There is a general consensus that our politicians, including President Zardari and PML (N) chief Nawaz Sharif, should have, as private citizens, donated a lot more than they have; and there is some resentment that given the scale of the problem the country's top executives have not considered it prudent to visit these camps.
To cite security concerns is unlikely to convince the populace considering that US presidents have all visited war torn Kabul and Baghdad. Laudatory reports of relief efforts by private citizens located in neighbouring areas who, reportedly, have opened their homes to IDPs are streaming in. Politicians, especially of the ruling party who, according to the latest polls would win only 17 percent of the vote if elections are held this week, must make concerted efforts to match private sector response as far as is possible.
In spite of a growing number of IDPs there is overwhelming evidence that a broad spectrum of the Pakistani people support the ongoing military action in these areas. This is indeed a window of opportunity and the operation must be swift to forestall excessive collateral damage as well as hasten the rehabilitation of the IDPs.
It maybe recalled that the Lal Masjid operation was neither launched at the time when public support for it was at its peak nor carried out swiftly. Thus the government must be made aware that public opinion can turn quickly against its actions and therefore it must not only do as much as is possible to ease the genuine issues facing the IDPs but also seen to be doing so. For starters it is hoped that the Prime Minister and his cabinet are seen less at inaugurations and more at the IDP camps.