Anger in Pakistan over lax flood relief efforts

Nowshera:  Islamist charities, some with suspected ties to militants, stepped in yesterday to provide aid for Pakistanis hit by the worst flooding in memory, piling pressure on a government criticised for its response to the disaster that has so far killed more than 1,000 people.

The floods that ravaged the northwest and displaced more than a million people are testing an administration heavily dependent on foreign aid and which has a poor record in crisis management - whether fighting Taliban insurgents or easing chronic power cuts.

Charities believed to have ties with militants may gain support if their relief efforts pay off, as they did after a 2005 earthquake in Kashmir killed 75,000 people. "We have lost everything. We only managed to save our lives. Nobody has come to us," said Mihrajuddin Khan, a school teacher in Swat Valley. "We are being treated like orphans, animals."

Distribution

Rescuers are struggling to distribute relief to tens of thousands of people trapped in submerged areas where destroyed roads and bridges make access difficult.

Many in the path of the floods scrambled to save their livestock. One man swam across heavy currents with his chicken tied around his neck. In one town, there were more than 100 bloated buffalo carcasses, raising the spectre of disease.

Islamabad may look to western countries, who want it to do more to tackle Pakistan-based militants who attack Nato forces in Afghanistan, for financial support to ease the crisis.

The US embassy announced $10 million in immediate humanitarian aid, with more to be earmarked as necessary. The European Union will donate 30 million euros.

Britain pledged £5 million yesterday to help the victims of flooding in Pakistan.

Salman Shahid, spokesman for the Falah-i-Insaniat Foundation (Foundation for the Welfare of Humanity), said the group had set up 13 relief and six medical camps, and a dozen ambulances were providing emergency treatment. Several other groups are also helping out with the relief effort.

Falah-i-Insaniat is believed to have ties to Jamaat-ud-Dawa charity, which the UN Security Council banned last December for its alleged links with Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), the group blamed for the 2008 attack on the Indian city of Mumbai.

"We're very much there. We're the only group that is providing cooked food to trapped people and those laying on the roadside," Shahid told Reuters from the group's headquarters in Lahore. "Our volunteers are evacuating people."

Some analysts expressed doubts that Islamist groups and their militant wings could capitalise on the disaster because army offensives have weakened them.

Others said the militant camps had set a dangerous precedent.

Governance vacuum

"It is very likely that they will exploit the governance vacuum, in the wake of this tragedy, to fuel their own recruitment," said columnist Huma Yusuf.

A similar dynamic happened after the 2005 Kashmir earthquake, she said, when extremist groups gained immense popularity from their relief efforts. Pakistan is fighting insurgents from Al Qaida and homegrown Taliban in the northwest.

Authorities are expecting the death toll to rise, as more of the heavy monsoon rains lashing the area for the past week are forecast. Pakistan's National Disaster Management Authority said more than 29,500 houses were damaged and a key trade highway to China was blocked by flooding.

"Our main challenge of getting a clearer picture is access," said Nicki Bennett, senior humanitarian officer at United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

Officials said it was too early to estimate the damage the floods had caused to the economy, but the rains had so far spared the main agricultural heartland in the Punjab.

"The entire infrastructure we built in the last 50 years has been destroyed," said Adnan Khan, spokesman for the provincial Disaster Management Authority in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.

The disaster management authority said tents and hygiene kits had been delivered. Helicopters and boats have been dispatched.

But analysts say the government really lacks the resources to take on a disaster of this scale, leaving the military in charge.