If one were to look at most of the coverage of the mainstream media, one would think the country isn’t experiencing a calamity other than the political variety.
Whereas that is a horrible indictment of the state of the nation’s news media, it is also a comment on the current political leadership. Focusing more on clamping down on the opposition, it seems to have thrown the hapless affectees of the floods to fend for themselves. Not that this somehow absolves the current federal opposition, because they’re in power in the Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces, helming the tier of government that is supposed to be more hands-on in a situation like this.
With more than 500 people killed and a million affected, even though the disaster and emergency management apparatus of the government are trying to do their work, there appears to be an air of rudderlessness to their efforts in the absence of the political leaderships being more visible during the efforts.
This isn’t the first time Pakistan has faced such terrible floods and it certainly won’t be the last, but we need to realise that climate change is going to make their occurrence more frequent and their results more disastrous. We need to eke out a more concerted and more coordinated approach towards dealing with such disasters from now on.
Our special geography, our mountains, our plains, our rivers, are all blessings of nature and from them emanate bounties that nourish the nation. But with these, come certain challenges as a price for the above. Our response should not be found wanting.
Political parties in the center and the provinces must also consider, with the utmost seriousness, the ramifications of inaction in terms of rehabilitation next year when elections will be held. As things stand, incumbents have not fared well in recent electoral contests. PDM parties in Sindh and Islamabad would do well to joins heads and hands and develop a workable strategy to provide tangible and effective relief to affectees of the ongoing climatic calamities.
