ISLAMABAD – Flood-stricken Pakistan urgently needs more aid to prevent potential instability and extremism, influential US senator John Kerry said, as hunger and disease threaten millions of victims.
In a commentary in the International Herald Tribune, Mr Kerry, who heads the US Senate’s foreign relations committee, said the international community was not meeting its responsibilities towards Pakistan, where floods have killed more than 1,600 and left at least six million homeless.
“The danger of the floods extends beyond a very real humanitarian crisis,” Mr Kerry wrote in yesterday’s edition. “A stable and secure Pakistan, based on democracy and the rule of law, is in all of our interests. Pakistan has made enormous strides in combating extremism and terrorism at great sacrifice. But its ability to keep up the fight requires an effective response to this crisis.”
Pakistan has struggled with its response to the massive flooding, which has left one-fifth of the country under water, an area the size of Italy. Some Pakistanis have grown increasingly angry with the sluggish government response, and are turning to Islamist charities, some of them tied to militant groups.
“We don’t want politicians. We want the Islamic groups in power. The government just steals,” said Haidar Ali, a college student in the devastated Swat Valley, whose life has been reduced to laying bricks all day in stifling heat.
The United States worries that the battle against Islamist militants may have become harder in Pakistan, with a weakened administration battling economic meltdown and public fury.
But in south Punjab there is no evidence people are looking to the Islamists to solve their problems. No one interviewed expressed any interest in politics, nor indeed in any subject, beyond getting help from whoever was prepared to provide it.
There also was no evidence of Islamist groups out in force.
Poor, rural and fatalistic, the people were more inclined to be resigned to their fate. “God will decide our future. We don’t know,” said 80-year-old Malik Mahmood.
In Jampur, in southern Punjab, about 500km southwest of Islamabad, waters have begun to recede but thousands of people still live in relief camps. “In about two weeks’ time, when the river returns to normal, that’s when we expect movement in the population ,” Brig Zahid Usman said.
Further south in Thatta, in Sindh, the flooding that threatened the city of 300,000 has been largely held back, said Saleh Farooqi, director general in Sindh for Pakistan’s National Disaster Management Authority, but Sajwal to the east is under water. “There has not been a substantial relief but things have improved,” he said. “Water is still flowing . . . It will take another four to five days for things to improve further.”
The death toll from the flooding was expected to rise significantly as the bodies of the many missing people are found. There is no official estimate of the number of missing because mass displacements have made accounting for them almost impossible.
Mr Kerry is a co-sponsor of the Kerry-Lugar-Berman aid package, which would funnel $7.5 billion (€5.9 billion) over five years in civilian development money to Pakistan. Last week, the head of the United States Agency for International Development said $50 million from the package would be diverted to immediate flood relief.
UN officials say an estimated 72,000 children, affected by severe malnutrition, were at high risk of dying. – (Reuters)