PAKISTAN: ARMY’S ROLE IN QUAKE RELIEF UNDER FLAK
Muddassir Rizvi
ISLAMABAD - Pakistan’s army, which came under heavy criticism for not acting fast enough to help survivors of the Oct.8 earthquake, in now under flak for its control over a donor-driven, multi-billion dollar, relief and rehabilitation programme.
International and local non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are demanding transparency and greater people’s participation in decision-making, while opposition political parties accuse the military-controlled government of bypassing parliament to supervise long-term reconstruction.
Against official estimates of 5.8 billion US dollars, needed for reconstruction in the devastated areas, the international community has pledged as much as six billion dollars-- half of it in soft loans from international monetary institutions.
Additionally, generous amounts, for which no estimates are available, have been flowing in through non-official channels, in response to appeals from Pakistan President Gen. Pervez Musharraf.
Devastated by the quake were Pakistan-controlled Kashmir and the adjacent North West Frontier Province (NWFP), militarily sensitive areas wedged between the Indian part of disputed Kashmir and Afghanistan. At least 75,000 people were killed and 300,000 of the survivors left without shelter in the elevated Himalayan region.
"The military has shown complete disregard for elected institutions in its hastiness to put together plans to undertake the reconstruction of the earthquake-hit areas," said Siddiquul Farooq, who is information secretary for the opposition Pakistan Muslim League party, headed by exiled, former prime minister Nawaz Sharif.
"Parliament was completely bypassed and so were the recently-elected local governments which have no role in making development decisions as well as distribution of compensation money to the affected people," he said.
Within a week of the earthquake, the government set up an Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority (ERRA), headed by a serving major general and the army’s engineer-in-chief. The ERRA is also staffed by officers drawn from the Military Engineering Service (MES).
Similarly, the running of the Federal Relief Commission (FRC), housed in the prime minister's secretariat, has also been handed over to a ranking major general.
The entire relief and reconstruction apparatus, at the local level, is run by military officials--ignoring local governments and civil administrations, legally mandated to perform the tasks.
To add salt to the injury, the government has granted immunity from prosecution, to uniformed officers working in the earthquake-hit areas.
"The powers bestowed on the ERRA and its officers mocks the demands for transparency and accountability," said Farhatullah Babar, who is spokesperson for the opposition Pakistan People's Party.
Babar said officers of the ERRA should not have been given such protection given that the country’s auditor general has, in the past, brought up serious charges of financial irregularities against the MES. "To entrust reconstruction projects of several hundred million dollars to such a body and indemnify its decisions is a recipe for a national disaster of another kind," he said.
Concerns over corruption apart, many of the national and international civil society organisations feel that the presence of the military is squeezing the space for their engagement.
"Although the military's response was commendable in the initial rescue and relief work, their long-term presence in these areas at the helm of decision-making processes is squeezing the space for civil society to work independently," says Ayyaz Kiyani, executive coordinator of the Islamabad-based, ‘Network for Consumer Protection’.
The Network was asked to pack up the 200-bed medical camp it set up on a football field in Abbottabad days after the earthquake struck, by local administration. "They (local officials) said we would ruin the football ground."
"Absence< (END)
