15-10-05

Afterthoughts - I

Kamran Shafi

What a tragedy has visited us, especially our compatriots in Azad Kashmir and the Frontier! The scale is staggering; the pictures on the much too-many satellite channels heart-rending; first-hand news from relatives and friends staggering in its frightening dreadfulness. My wife's cousin, a lecturer in English Literature in a college in Muzaffarabad literally buried two of her children with her own hands, one 17 and the other 15, in the courtyard of her own house after she was herself rescued from under the debris of her classroom where she lay buried for seven hours!

"How shall I grieve," she says, "when every neighbour, every one you know, has lost their children too; many of them all their children"? Away from the mutual back-slapping that is going on, away from the various "agencies" of the government of the Land of the Pure admiring each others great work, this is the reality of common folk -- those who have lived through and survived this great catastrophe.

Really, sometimes one feels as if the Almighty has been harder than He could have been -- to the mainly poor and disadvantaged ... but then one stops oneself ... how can a mortal man say such a thing? What about the hundreds of thousands who have died across the world in similar natural disasters? Did they not lose their loved ones, did they not lose their all? Which immediately makes me ask those Clerical Eminences who said of Hurricane Katrina that it was a visitation from the Almighty for all the wrongs there are in American society. Well, what do they say now that too many thousands more have perished in the Islamic Republic than "Kafir" Christians and Jews in Hurricane Katrina? Most of the Pakistani dead and injured and driven-to-the-edge were poor, and they were believers I might add. Most of them were good, God-fearing people.

Following this train of thought, and if Their Holinesses are right when they say that this is indeed a sign of God's displeasure with us, then they have done a pretty lousy job of guiding us, what? Should they then not look into their own hearts and see if they find the answer there? Is it the case that their spreading hatred against the other great religions of the world, and calling for the death of the "Kufaar", who are God's children too, has angered the Almighty?

Leave that be, for who can reason with those who live in medieval times, those who do not acknowledge the great harmony that existed among the religions in that distant time but who only harp upon hate, hate, hate. We wait with bated breath for what they will say now, despite the fact that the Kufaar are helping us out in this time of our need, far, far more than the Ummah, whatever THAT beast is.

Enough has been written castigating everyone else for the tardy reaction to the situation in Kashmir and the Frontier. Well, what about the governments of Kashmir and the Frontier? Where were they in all of this? Let us take the Kashmir government first: a bloated, fat, unwieldy government if ever there was one. Why, per capita AJK has more ministers than the Islamic Republic and THAT is saying something when Islamabad the Beautiful is groaning under the weight (this is no pun) of this present cabinet and army of advisers of all shades and colours.

The AJK government is also known to conduct itself with as much pomp and ceremony where it comes to fancy and expensive SUVs and luxurious limos and palaces and the like. Which would have been good and dandy if there was even a fair to middling reaction to what happened to its people. The paralysis that it was inflicted with was/is there for everyone to see. Where were the District Administrations? Admitted that many of the officials were themselves affected, but then so were the Army troops affected. Two brigade commanders, among other bereaved, lost their children; and there are reports that far more soldiers of all ranks, and soldiers' families, have perished than earlier announced.

Neither is this all. Regarding the complaints about the lack of food supply following the quake, where were the rations that are dumped at this time of year in the valleys for supply to the inhabitants during the bitterly cold winter months? This being October, the rations should already have been stored in the valleys, a large proportion of them anyway. Well, where were the rations in this case? Whilst the Pakistan government must carry some of the blame for the late reaction of everyone concerned, the people of AJK should take their own government to task too for failing them so miserably at this most difficult time.

And what about the government of the Frontier? All one heard from its Senior Minister for the first four days were complaints against Islamabad and the Federal Government for not doing enough. Couldn't they have rallied their own rescue teams and rushed to Balakot and environs? This government of clerics boasts of seminaries in the Frontier that produce well trained cadres of Talibs. Well, where were they when they were needed most by their own people? Or are they only there to man the Hasba committees and hurl fire and brimstone?

What's happened has happened; where do we go from here? The government has to pull its socks up for it is the government's primary duty to look after its masters, the people, who pay for it in the first instance by the sweat of their brows! It must learn from the mistakes made; it must take the most stringent action against any of its functionaries found wanting in doing his/her duty, no matter of what rank he/she may be; and it must put in place standard operating procedures for handling emergencies such as the present one.

To be concluded

Bushism of the Week: "When I was coming up, it was a dangerous world, and you knew exactly who they were. It was us vs. them, and it was clear who them was. Today, we are not so sure who the they are, but we know they're there" - President George W. Bush; Iowa Western Community College; January 21, 2000

The writer, a retired army officer, is a freelance columnist

God bless America

Mir Jamilur Rahman

These three words "God bless America" were spontaneously uttered by a badly wounded quake victim in Balakot when he was put in the giant American chopper for evacuation to Islamabad hospital. These words sum up the feelings of the entire nation, especially the quake victims who could not be moved to hospitals for want of logistic support. The Pakistanis invoke God's blessings for all those who came rushing to rescue the trapped survivors and provide relief to hundreds of thousands homeless, foodless, and injured quake victims.

Blessed are the BBC and CNN also who carried the images of the human suffering worldwide eliciting one of the most generous responses from the world community. The blessings of God would go to the reporters of the domestic electronic and print media too who made the nation aware of the dimensions of the catastrophe that has visited upon the relatively backward and poor areas of Pakistan.

The British volunteers Rapid were first on the scene, within 20 hours of the quake. They brought highly sophisticated equipment to locate and rescue people who were trapped under the collapsed Margalla Towers. They were followed in quick succession by French and Japanese teams which conducted their operation in AJ&K, Frontier and the Northern Areas and were successful in saving a number of buried survivors: men, women and children.

The death toll is rising by the hour. The saddest part of this death toll is the loss of school children and college students, which runs into thousands. "A whole generation lost", rightly screamed the headline of The News of last Tuesday. But those children who have survived must be provided education. Building of schools must be the first of the priorities.

After a slow start due to logistic problems, a massive relief effort is now underway. The Pakistan army has been deployed in the affected areas to rebuild roads, field hospitals and to bring order in the relief distribution. The people of the devastated areas were bitter because they were hungry; they needed food, shelter and medical attention, which were slow in coming. However, the supplies and distribution mechanism is now in place and has improved tremendously and quake stricken people are now getting the basic supplies in plenty.

Imagine the helplessness of the inhabitants of a sprawling city Muzaffarabad which is without a single hospital, no civil administration, no police force, no food shops, no electricity or phone, no sanitation, and no potable water. All the hospitals, about two dozens, and hundreds of clinics have perished in the affected areas. The people who survived are living and sleeping under open skies. It is the same story in the towns and villages spread over in northern Pakistan. The government efforts supported by the local and foreign NGO's and the generous attitude of the world community and Pakistanis is now bringing civilization back to the areas stricken by a calamity of gargantuan proportions.

A letter from a US citizen has appeared in a newspaper inquiring that in the aftermath of hurricanes Katrina and Rita, Americans heard an earful from Muslims worldwide about how God was punishing the US for its actions in Iraq and Afghanistan. The correspondent wondered if the same reasoning is now being applied to the devastating earthquake in Pakistan. The American citizen may be surprised to know that a vast number of people here strongly believe that they are being punished by Allah, as the following statements would reveal.

Abdus Sattar Edhi, the founder and head of the biggest and the most respected welfare NGO of Pakistan, has said that such catastrophes would continue to occur because we are tax dodgers and do not pay zakat.

Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, president of Pakistan Muslim League, is of the view that the earthquake had signified God's anger. He added we should improve our conduct morally and ask for His forgiveness.

Maulana Fazlur Rahman, opposition leader and chief of Jamiat Ulema Islam, opined that the earthquake was the result of our sins. He said by ignoring namaz and roza (fasting) we invited the wrath of God. He added that in the name of liberalism drinking alcohol, indulgence in illegitimate sex and immorality has become the fashion that has caused Divine rage.

Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, Amir of Jamaat Al Dawa, has said that natural calamites are a test given to Muslims by Allah. He asked the people to seek Allah's forgiveness for their sins and follow the right path. He advised the government to change those policies which are causing Allah's anger.

Malik Riaz Hussain, chief of Bahria Town, is of the view that the cause of this earthquake was the false oaths which the newly elected local government Nazims and Councillors took on Qura'n on 6 October. He said they are all guilty of treating Qura'n with irreverence. He said Allah may still forgive us if all the elected representatives would swear that they would never again take a false oath.

Natural calamities kill without discrimination. They do not distinguish between the sinner and the pious. Moreover, it is the poor who suffer most. Katrina hit New Orleans populated by poor blacks. The quake here hit those areas which are populated by the poor who observe the Islamic injunctions more rigidly than the urbanites.

Many are of the view that the increase in the frequency of natural calamities point out that the end of the world is near. Look at the score. First the Tsunami, then Katrina and Rita followed by bird flue and now the Pakistani earthquake. A private TV channel in Pakistan keeps on reminding its viewers by showing images of various disasters that Qiamat (the end) is round the corner. A prominent clergyman in the US said last Sunday that the recent natural disasters around the world point to the end of the world.

It would be unjust to blame the government that it reacted slowly to the disaster. The government took a few hours to fathom the seriousness of the situation and as soon as the dimensions of the catastrophe became known, the relief operation was launched in earnest. Within three days the roads going to affected areas were made traffic worthy. Now they are clogged with trucks carrying relief goods. The giant helicopters from the US have made it possible to move great bulks of supplies to remote parts and ferry the injured to hospitals in Islamabad and Rawalpindi.

The reconstruction and rehabilitation process would take years to complete. The immediate concern in view of the coming winter would be to provide shelter to the homeless whose number is estimated at 2.5 million, a million more than the number of homeless made by Tsunami. The government intends to build tent cities to house this large number temporarily. These tent cities must have school and colleges so that the younger generation is not deprived of education.

The government has announced compensation for the dead and injured. Many survivors would also need sustained monetary help to get them over the period of their joblessness. Factories, hotels, stores, restaurants and offices have been destroyed depriving hundreds of thousands of people their livelihood. The daily wage earners would also be without work for a considerable time. They will all need regular assistance to keep their bodies and souls together.

President General Pervez Musharraf has greatly appreciated and welcomed the stance and cooperation of the opposition parties in this national emergency. He should go a step further to consolidate this solidarity. The self-exiled and exiled leaders should be allowed to come back. They could render great help in the gigantic process of reconstruction of the devastated areas.

The writer is a freelance columnist

Let the Cuban doctors come to Pakistan!

Rahimullah Yusufzai

A BBC TV report by Gavin Hewitt from Abbottabad highlighted the plight of overworked doctors as they try to cope with an unending flow of people injured in the October 8 earthquake. One of the younger surgeons said he had performed around 100 amputations on patients with gangrenous limbs. Senior surgeon Dr Sahibzada made a telling parting remark. He said instead of money (he used the word pound) there was a need for skilled doctors to undertake the mounting load of work at the Ayub Teaching Hospital, Abbottabad and other hospitals in the quake-affected region.

We must seek advise from people such as Dr Sahibzada while making contingency medical plans to cope with the tragedy that has struck Pakistan. He and his colleagues need helping hands to treat patients and perform surgeries. This reminds one of the generous offer made by President Fidel Castro of Cuba to send 200 doctors specialised in natural disasters and serious epidemics to help the earthquake affectees. The Cuban government has made it clear that it would bear all expenses relating to transportation of the doctors while requisite stock of medicines would also be sent to Pakistan.

It is learnt that the Pakistan government has conveyed to Cuba that it wants 50 doctors only. One hopes Islamabad would review its decision and let all 200 doctors come to Pakistan. We need many more doctors, nurses and paramedics in view of the unprecedented scale of the death and destruction wrought by the earthquake. Hundreds of injured people are flocking to hospitals in Azad Kashmir, Mansehra, Battagram, Abbottabad, Dassu, Swat, Peshawar and even Rawalpindi-Islamabad and Lahore. A UN report said 1,000 hospitals, mostly small ones, in Pakistan have been destroyed in the earthquake, prompting the government to make an urgent appeal to the international community for field hospitals, antibiotics, anti-typhoid medicines, fracture treatment kits, and surgical equipment.

One is sure the Cubans would be able to contribute a lot toward meeting this need. Their doctors have served in Third World countries in Africa, Latin America and Asia and have done commendable work to earn the affection of their patients and the gratitude of numerous communities and governments. They also possess experience in working in tough conditions and dealing with natural disasters and epidemics. The Cubans are best suited to working in conditions prevailing in poor developing countries such as Pakistan.

They have proved time and again that good results could be achieved with minimum resources. Despite US-sponsored economic sanctions and limited resources, Cuba has been able to offer its citizens an efficient health delivery system that has earned praise from international organizations.

In fact, we could learn a lot from the Cuban doctors and medical administrators and apply some of the lessons learnt to improve our hopelessly inadequate health delivery system. A number of countries have benefited from the Cuban experience and Pakistan too would gain rather than lose anything by experimenting with methods employed by Mr Castro's revolutionary government to build one of the best health delivery systems in the world. By opting not to benefit from the well-meaning and generous Cuban offer, Pakistan would be depriving its hapless earthquake affectees of an opportunity to benefit from badly needed medical treatment at the hands of men and women who have worked in places hit by natural calamities and epidemics. Rather it would be cruel to ask President Castro not to send Cuban doctors to Pakistan, or dispatch only 50. We need each one of those 200 Cuban doctors waiting to fly to Pakistan for the sake of the thousands of injured quake victims lining up at overcrowded hospitals and losing precious time that could save lives.

The writer is an executive editor of The News in Peshawar

14-10-05

The enemy within

 Dissenting Note

Masooda Bano

The figures of those affected by the earthquake continue to rise and sadden us. The tragic details of whole villages being wiped out and heart-wrenching visuals of survivors sitting numb by their dead relatives continue to moist the eyes and wrench the heart. But, as we move from the state of shock to deal with the outcomes of the disaster it becomes clear that nature was not the only enemy; the disaster played havoc in the affected areas and continues to do so because of many man-made evils that plague our state as well as society.

While the actual death toll is estimated to be above 30,000, the number of people affected by the quake is estimated to be four million. Those who are dead are gone and they can only benefit from our prayers, but the actual victims are the survivors in the affected areas. The survivors from the families where most have perished face extreme psychological and emotional trauma. Their miseries are further aggravated due to loss of their homes, assets, and livelihoods.

Needless to say that a long-term relief and development plan has to be chalked out for these areas. The first phase needs to focus on provision of basic survival items like food, medicine, and blankets to all the survivors; the second phase needs to focus on complete rehabilitation of these people. But, in order to fully understand what needs to be done to cope with the disaster and to minimise the impact of such natural calamities in the future it is critical to pinpoint the things that have aggravated this disaster.

The most obvious message is the need to regulate construction processes especially in the public sector. The highest number of deaths has occurred within the state buildings. State schools have been the worst hit: up to four hundred children have died under the same roof. We have always known the corruption that mars the construction contracts in the public sector; the speedy deterioration of our roads is a constant reminder of that. However, now this tragedy shows that all those who are part of this system actually have blood on their hands. An inquiry committee has to be established to investigate why these buildings collapsed so instantaneously that no teacher or student could escape them.

Similar investigations have to be made into the commercial housing sector. The fall of the Margalla Towers in Islamabad confirms public fears that commercial housing colonies and flats sprawling across the country are completely unregulated. The state monitoring agencies that do exist are willing to allow deviation from standards for handsome kickbacks. The disaster has proven how criminal such corruption practices are and how dire is the need to regulate the construction in both public and commercial sector.

But, if a few corrupt people in the state departments and construction agencies were the only problem one won't be so concerned. The disaster has also shown that people, especially poor people in the remote areas, are not the priority of the state at all. It was clear from the very outset that the base of the earthquake was up north yet for the first two days the state attention was focused only on Islamabad and Margalla Towers. Only when the media reports started to record the tragedy and destruction up north did the state moved towards these areas.

Radio and press interviews with people in Balakot and other affected areas record extreme resentment against the government for not sending help in time. In case of school buildings people in many areas said that they could keep hearing voices of children who were alive under the debris 24 hours after the fall of the buildings but no state help had arrived to evacuate them. In many of these areas people reported that army trucks were passing by but they did not respond to the public's desperate pleas for assistance in evacuating these children because they did not have the orders from Islamabad.

Any civilized nation needs to have disaster-management plans. True, countries with meagre resources cannot put too many resources in reserve for these mishaps but it does not take money to chalk out a plan as to how the available resources will be mobilised if a natural disaster hits certain areas of the country. The slow response from the state makes it clear that no one within the state machinery has ever thought of developing such a plan. Such a plan should have particularly existed for this area given that scientific studies do record this region to be particularly vulnerable to high intensity earthquakes. But, again no one in our government would have ever engaged with these reports.

What has happened is behind us now, but the state now needs to realise that it must make a long-term commitment to rehabilitating the people in these areas and should not forget about them as soon as the media and public attention wanes. Also, the public especially our young men and women need to come forward to make personal commitment to helping rehabilitate these areas. This help has to go much beyond making donations. Gathering donations is the easiest part after such a heart-breaking disaster, the real issue is to ensure that the money collected whether at home or abroad actually reaches the affected people.

This important task cannot be left only to the government or NGOs, ordinary people have to act as monitors and along with the media they have to ensure that the areas being ignored are brought to public notice. This requires making personal commitments and making group-visits to these areas. In any society college and university students are best geared for such a role; one can only hope that this disaster will kindle this sense of civic responsibility in the hearts of Pakistani youngsters. 

The writer is an Islamabad-based analyst currently doing a PhD at Oxford

The earth quakes
Quantum Note

Dr. Muzaffar Iqbal

Geologists have a convincing explanation: major earthquakes happen when tectonic plates beneath large mountains shift and snap. A great deal of seismic activity normally takes place beneath the mountains, but remains unnoticed by all except for a handful of experts studying the mountains until the earth quakes. And when it quakes, it takes its toll, ruining millions of lives. All of this has nothing to do with the One Who created the mountains and the earth as well as those who suffer when the earth quakes, we are made to believe. Sufficient explanation has been provided by science and that is the end of the story, and we are asked to believe. Even the creation of mountains and those who live on earth has been explained away by science. In short, all these scientific explanations have removed God from the equation.

These are relatively new explanations. They have only emerged in the wake of the Scientific Revolution of the seventeenth century and have been adopted as the official religion of the scientific community during the preceding three centuries, rendering all other explanations "unscientific", and hence somehow flawed. Until their appearance, humanity believed in a Creator Who was actively present in the affairs of those who lived upon earth, as well as in what happened below it. But modern science calls these beliefs superstitions. This reigning scientific orthodoxy has not only removed the hand of God from human and natural affairs, it has also left humanity in a state of despair -- for if earthquakes can be explained away in terms of the movement of tectonic plates, and all that happens on earth in terms of randomly occurring chances, giving birth to the fittest species, then there remains neither any purpose in life, nor any direction for the moral and spiritual life of humanity. This tyranny of science is not only widely accepted, it has become a pseudo religion with followers who wish to hear no one but the experts, who wish to understand everything in terms imposed by science. But in a tragic situation like the one now faced by millions of people in Pakistan, science can provide neither answers nor solace; it can merely explain away the devastation.

Human beings have a spirit capable of feeling pain and anguish at the departure of their loved ones, and they have needs far beyond the physical needs dictated by hormones and glands.

They have a spiritual life which originates in their very fitrah, the innate nature, upon which they have been created. And built within this fitrah is an awareness of the Creator Who fashioned man out of clay and inserted Spirit to give life to this earthy creature.

This life has been created for a purpose and for a fixed duration, and no amount of scientific knowledge can increase or decrease this fixed duration assigned to each soul as its period of residence on earth. What causes the departure from earth is also pre-ordained and the soul arrives at the place from where it is destined to be taken away. This is not mere dogma; centuries of collective human experience and wisdom testify to this truth and it remains a clearly understood truth for all whose hearts have not been corrupted.

Calamities are not the work of nature, for nature has no authority to create them. Likewise, the so-called laws of nature are not the product of nature; they have been created by the One Who created nature. No calamity befalls a community without a reason and though when the earth quakes, the secondary causes can be ascribed to the movement of tectonic plates and explained in terms of geological data, these explanations remain secondary, for science has no answer for primary questions beginning with a "Why"; it can only tell us "How". Indeed, all that happens below and above earth is causal, that is, there are causes for events, but these causes are both physical and spiritual. Science provides answers for the physical causes; in general, it remains unaware of the presence of spiritual causes.

No calamity of the kind that befell Pakistan happens without spiritual causes, age-old wisdom tells us. The people of `Ad and the Thamud were wiped out from the face of earth through a calamity like the one witnessed on October 8, 2005; those who lived at the time of Nuh (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) were victims of a flood like of which they had never seen before and all of these so-called natural calamities have been recognized as results of the spiritual decay of these communities. This has been the case for centuries. Every community that witnessed a disaster of the nature now inflicted on Pakistan, recognized the spiritual causes more than the physical causes. Only now, do we tend to forget the main cause and concentrate on the secondary causes.

Indeed, there is a lesson in what happened on October 8, and a warning: the hand of God is not cut off from human affairs, and whatever direction Pakistani polity has chosen in recent years, is clearly not in accordance with the high spiritual life that was envisioned for this polity when it was established. Of course, thousands of innocent lives have perished, but that too, is a blessing for them. This does not lessen the pain and suffering of those who are left behind, but for those who remain steadfast and patient a great reward awaits in the Hereafter, for no calamity befalls them except that they say: Inna lil'Llahi wa inna alaihi raji`un, Indeed, we are from Allah and to Him we return.

The writer is a freelance columnist

Balakot in ruins 

Anees Jillani

The writer visited Bakakot on October 10

If you ever want to see a government failing, and in fact, want to see a collapsed state, then visit Balakot, which is two and a half hours drive from Abbottabad. While going to Balakot, I was expecting immense activity there, with hundreds of relief camps and people removing rubble to recover the living and removing the bodies. I was dismayed by the relief efforts.

There is absolutely nothing by the name of government in Balakot; it is total anarchy with everybody fending for themselves. There is no electricity; no water supply; no telecommunication connection with the outside world; no sewerage system as there is no structure existing; roads are cluttered with debris; bodies are decomposing in almost every home and shop; expensive items are lying in shops and no one is interested in them except that all food items have been taken away; vehicles including trucks are lying on sides; children's bodies are decaying in all schools; there is a pungent bodies' smell in the whole area and one starts smelling of it after a few hours; there is no medical facility in the whole area; not a single shop is open; God knows where the police is; all government offices are destroyed; and locals are stunned, with hardly a single family remaining unaffected and all living and sleeping out in the open, with nothing to cook and no utensils, no bedding and no clothing.

You listen to the concerned authorities and it seems that relief could not have been better, and they are in total control of the situation. Probably they are because the soldiers for some bizarre reason can only be seen carrying their heavy guns even in a place like Margalla Towers in Islamabad. How can they work when they are carrying these guns? And what are they carrying them for?

I reached Balakot on October 10, slightly 48 hours after the earthquake. The road had just opened as it was closed after land-slides at two places; incidentally, it was a minor slide and it should not have taken two days to re-open the road. There was a lot of traffic and so I went from the Garhi Habibullah road to Balakot; it must have been a good road at one point of time but now the road has vanished from a couple of places, and vehicles have problems at certain points.

My first stop in Balakot was at Shaheen Memorial School where 400 children were said to be buried. Volunteers from Abbottabad had rescued four children slightly earlier and now a French Rescue team, led by the French Embassy Defence Attache, was starting its operations. I remained with them till midnight. It goes without saying that their professionalism and attitude was phenomenal; they never panicked. When the first child was pulled out in front of me, I felt electrified. The Defence Attache had told me to tell the crowd not to raise any slogans as the child would be in trauma but even I could not help shouting `Ali' once he was pulled out from the hole that was once the ground floor but was now crushed by the upper two storeys. And this five-year old was funny. The first thing he asked for once out was Tang. Two rescues followed.

Suddenly, dozens of folk started offering their prayers on that very roof under which 400 children were buried, preceded by loud Azaan; it was Iftari time. The French asked me if they could continue with the drilling during azaan and namaz, I asked them to please continue. Every minute was precious for the kids trapped underneath us. And then the French discovered two kids and I noticed a strange thing lying over them. It turned out to be the body of their teacher Kinza; it took almost took two hours to widen the concrete hole and break the door lying over Kinza to recover the boy. I kept talking to the boy while he was stuck. Kinza's body had to be removed first and it was stinking so bad that even the French without any masks could not help clearing their throats: and the child Arif was lying under her was for more than two and half days. He was dazed but was talking and threw up when given juice; he was severely bruised.

The French told me that Kinza had saved the child's life by covering him and another child with her body. The other child had died by the time we recovered him. The French without eating anything and a short break brought their sniffing dogs to look for another spot to drill. I left as it was getting past midnight. The next day, I heard that they had discovered many more children and left at four in the morning confirming that there were no longer any more children who were alive. They had come straight from France and hardly talked with each other or commented on anything or ever complained; it was straight to work.

Obviously, the hundreds surrounding them could not help wondering that why folks from across the globe had to come to save their children when the army jawans were camped right across the river in hundreds. I did not see any police but saw one guy walking past the collapsed school top and asked him to help me carry a child's body; he just stared at me, without saying a word and kept walking.

I myself experienced the earthquake in Islamabad; I have not moved out of the room during such quakes in the past. I kept in the room even with this one until there was a big jolt after a few seconds of tremors and shouted to everybody at home to run out. It was probably that big jolt that destroyed everything in Balakot. The Shaheen School was a three-storey school built with the donation of a guy based in Qatar; beats me why schools of more than one storey were ever allowed to be constructed in a quake prone area. The children were recovered from the ground floor; and the top floors had crashed on them. You see a floor next to the road and it turns out that there are two floors under it, they have gone into the ground. Locals say that the earth moved up and down in strange ways in the whole town.

One local Hanif told me that he ran out of the shop after the initial tremors and then there was dust in the air. When the dust settled, there was total devastation and hardly a structure standing in the whole town. The sole Tehsil Hospital in town gone; not a single house in the town survived; 95% percent of the shops gone; Qasim Shah's major five storey hotel gone into the Kunar river; a major thickly populated neighbourhood was located on a hill-top and there were no survivors; the police station survived; PTDC Hotel partly survived; a major shopping plaza owned by a group of Jabligi Jamaat workers is the only imposing structure that has survived; Syed Ahmad Shaheed's grave has survived but structures around it have been demolished; Ismail Shaheed's mazaar has partly been destroyed; all schools have been destroyed and two telephone towers perhaps belonging to mobile companies have survived.

Many locals said that there were cries for help immediately after the quake from all quarters and up to 70% percent could have been saved if the troops had arrived the same day. I said that how could they when roads were blocked. They said that they could have parachuted them or sent them by helicopters. The first chopper hovered over the town within six hours of the quake for inspection but did not land. The pity is not this alone. Tragedy is that nothing is being done by the governmental quarters even at this late stage.

The only ray of hope is with the people of Pakistan. Their spirit to help their compatriots in distress is touching. There is constant flow of aid pouring into Balakot but it is all being sent by individuals or the corporate sector and nothing is being organized by the government. And as it is all individual, it is disorganized. The whole town is flooded with second hand clothing and it is lying all over on the roads in dirt and soaked by rains. Many are bringing in so-called juice, mineral water and biscuits; and some bringing in other stuff. However, crucial stuff right now are tents as people are living out in the open and it becomes cold at night. They need cooking stoves, oil, flour, vegetables, tea, and of course doctors with medicines. The injured need to be immunized against tetanus and few have undergone that. There are no anti-biotics. We all need to pitch in and do whatever we can do to alleviate the suffering and help our brothers and sisters (who are not seen anywhere and thus unheard of) and children (who have no voice).

There is a Persian saying that "This will also pass". So this horrible period in the lives of these people will also pass. But it will never be the same. How can it be when you have lost your son, daughter, husband, wife, father, mother, brother, sister, friends, or neighbours? Your home is destroyed and business is lost. But it will pass. And people will remember how the State, the government and all of us have treated them and the consequence can be extremely nasty for the State of Pakistan.

The writer is an advocate of the Supreme Court of Pakistan

Lessons from this tragedy

Reality Check

Shafqat Mahmood

The writer is a former member parliament and a Lahore-based freelance columnist

How does one come to grips with a tragedy of this magnitude? What words can capture the grief of the bereaved or the desperation of the survivors? An entire generation has gone, perished. Twenty thousand or more are dead! Many of them young, caught in schools, going about the business of preparing for a future that will never be.

Life of those who managed to escape this disaster has been shattered beyond repair. Two million or more are homeless. Besides the unspeakable grief of losing loved ones, these people are out in the open exposed to elements; without food or water, without money or jobs, without a present or a future. The debris lying around them is of their existence.

There is an essential dignity to humankind. It does not matter what station of life a person is in. Rich or poor, young or old, male or female, everyone has pride. It is sad that a catastrophe of this magnitude also exposes how fragile these emotions are.

When hunger strikes or thirst becomes overwhelming, self respect takes a backseat to raw human needs. When there is no shelter from rain or loved ones are shivering in biting cold, pride is just an affectation that hinders action.

The sight of relief trucks being attacked for food is painful as are fights over a blanket or a piece of tarpaulin. Yet, how can one even begin to think of discipline or decent behaviour in such circumstances? These people have lost everything; loved ones, homes, possessions. They are out in the open not knowing how long this nightmare will last. Expecting self-control from them is a demand too much.

This does not mean that the government should abdicate its responsibility to bring order into this chaos. People are desperate and would take or snatch anything they can get hold of. It is the responsibility of the government to ensure not only that relief goods arrive in time but also that they are distributed in an orderly manner. Among a number of failings of this government, the lack of an adequate police presence for the distribution of relief goods is serious.

In the immediate aftermath of the earthquake, I was inclined to agree with General Musharraf that blaming the government for this or that failure should be avoided. It made sense to wait until the search and rescue and the immediate rehabilitation phase was over. However, some faults have been so egregious that it is difficult to overlook them.

It came as a huge surprise that the Federal Government did not have a permanent relief commissioner. As far as I know, this post had always existed and its principal job was to coordinate relief efforts. As it is, the first problem to become apparent was lack of coordination. Relief teams started to arrive from all over the world and there was no defined clearing house or a single window to channelise their effort.

Some of them were charged visa fees others were only given seven day entry permits. It is good that this has been extended to thirty days now but why was this an issue in any case. They were here to help us and we were treating them as unwelcome intruders. And, after admitting them, we did not know how to parcel them out to maximise their output. Some like the Spanish kept waiting at the Islamabad airport. Others like the Japanese, the French, the Turks, the Iranians, and the Chinese all converged on one area around Balakot.

Another failure of coordination has been the complete inability to synchronize the Herculean relief effort launched by non-governmental organizations and by hundreds of concerned citizens. The result is that some places are getting too many goods and others nothing. According to TV channels, a large number of private organizations landed up in Balakot and then just stood around aimlessly because there were too many doing the same thing.

Major General Farooq Ahmed, who has now been appointed relief commissioner, headed the Prime Minister's inspection commission. It is good that we have him in place but why was no one manning this position before? Whatever happened to the relief cell in the cabinet division? It was supposed to stock essential supplies for just such an eventuality. Why was it non operational or dormant?

The army has done a good job given the circumstances -- and the loss of life and destruction to its own facilities -- but it cannot supplant civilian agencies permanently engaged in relief organization. There did not seem to be anyone in charge in Muzaffarabad. What happened to the civil administration and police over there? It seemed strange that no single administrative point man was available. Local coordination is not and should not be the responsibility of the military. One of the first things that needed to be done was to appoint civilian sector commanders if the existing administrative structure had become a victim of the quake. Obviously this was not done.

It is not surprising given that there was no permanent person coordinating relief efforts that aid and assistance was slow in arriving. Only on the fifth day did some trucks reach Muzaffarabad. One can only imagine the condition of inaccessible villages in the valleys of Kashmir and NWFP. This failure will haunt the government for a long time.

Apart from the immediate problems of coordination and the slowness of the response, it is also a surprise that we do not have an adequate earthquake monitoring station. I am not sure how accurate the earthquake prediction science is but we have not even made a beginning. Considering that our north is an earthquake prone area, we need to set up a state of the art earthquake monitoring apparatus with as good an early warning capacity as any in the world.

It is also obvious that we do not have adequate local level emergency services. The Punjab government has taken a good initiative by setting up emergency response stations with ambulances and fire brigades. This appears to be a pilot initiative but needs to be extended all over the country. It is no point being a nuclear power if we cannot take care of calamities major or minor.

Difficult times lie ahead for northern Pakistan and Azad Kashmir. Huge amounts of funds would be required for rebuilding the infrastructure and rehabilitating the victims. Where will this money come from?

The response of the international community has been heart warming and unexpected. One cannot thank enough the French, the British, the Americans, the Chinese, the Japanese, the Turks, the Iranians and others who have rushed to assist us. The Indians have also been very forthcoming and that is heartening for future of the peace process.

But in the end, resources would have to be found from within. It is time to reorder national priorities and literally trade guns for butter.

One last word on the private relief mobilization within the country. All those who had become cynical about the future of the nation need to take another look. The ordinary Pakistani citizen and the non-governmental organizations have risen to the occasion in a manner that defies belief. They have shown a commitment and level of patriotism that should make everyone feel proud of us as a people. If any positive can be taken for this massive tragedy, this is it

Out of the rubble, an opportunity

Ian Bremmer

By any measure, the magnitude-7.6 earthquake that shook the Asian subcontinent last weekend left behind death and devastation on a horrifying scale. But such natural disasters do more than destroy lives and property. They sometimes offer important opportunities for political progress on seemingly intractable international disputes. They may also rattle poorly constructed political structures and reveal their underlying vulnerabilities. Both these dynamics are now at play in Pakistan.

When a devastating earthquake struck Turkey in August 1999, the country's bitter rival, Greece, offered badly needed relief workers and supplies. When another quake shook Greece three weeks later, Turkey responded in kind. Even the most cynical observer must acknowledge that the two quakes ultimately helped lift Greek-Turkish relations to a higher point than at any time in recent history -- and the benefits have lasted.

When the Pacific tsunami devastated coastal Indonesia last December, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono seized the opportunity offered by a catastrophic disaster to forge an agreement with rebel groups in the badly shaken Aceh province. The accord ended 30 years of violence.

Greece, Turkey and Indonesia have something very basic in common: They are democracies. Their leaders govern with the consent of their people. President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan enjoys no such popular legitimacy. He is an army general with executive power in a state ruled by the military, whose "mandate" depends on an implied understanding with the Pakistani people.

Under the terms of this deal, Musharraf must provide domestic stability and economic growth, free from the corruption endemic in many of Pakistan's previous civilian-led democratic governments. In return, the citizenry must not directly challenge military rule.

In the aftermath of the worst earthquake to hit the area in more than 100 years, Pakistan's military knows that if it does not now meet Pakistanis' urgent needs, the people may well decide that the military has failed to fulfil the terms of the deal. The jury -- the Pakistani people -- is still out on the military's response to the quake. But for the moment, the scale of the disaster is beyond the Pakistani military's ability to manage.

Then there's the opportunity. The hardest-hit region is Kashmir, a divided territory claimed by both Pakistan and India. Over the last 15 years, more than 65,000 people have died in fighting across the Line of Control that separates the Pakistani-- and Indian-administered areas of the Himalayan region.

The earthquake killed Indians as well, particularly in India's Jammu and Kashmir state. Still, India has offered Pakistan everything from tents and mattresses to army helicopters. While Pakistan has accepted some of the aid, its military government is loath to accept anything from India they fear is substantial enough to undermine Pakistan's dignity and inflame nationalists and religious radicals.

In short, Pakistan has refused to accept desperately needed helicopters from India, citing political "sensitivities," even as huge numbers of Pakistanis in remote areas of the country wait for help and rescuers race the clock to provide it.

If so, Musharraf would face sharp criticism from across his country -- and even from within the Pakistani military itself. Still, given the scale of the devastation and Islamabad's inability to cope with it, the risk might be worth taking.

International Herald Tribune

13-10-05

Disaster time

Ikram Sehgal

Last Saturday catastrophe came to Pakistan, the country was not prepared for it! Calamities always come as an unpleasant surprise.

At 8.55 am on Saturday Oct 8, 2005 the region from Kabul in the west to New Delhi in the east was severely rocked. Cities as far away as Dhaka felt some tremors, the shocks went on until 9:05 am. Epicentered 95 kms northeast of Islamabad, the most powerful earthquake to hit this region in a 100 years was recorded at 7.6 on the Richter Scale, the main focus of death and destruction targeting northern Pakistan in a wide swath from Peshawar to Azad Kashmir. Media attention riveted the first morning on rescue efforts directed at the two collapsed blocks of "Margalla Towers" in Islamabad's posh F-10 sector, diverting attention from the massive human and material devastation in Azad Kashmir, Kaghan and Kohistan valleys till hours later. With electricity and telephones lines down reports about a greater disaster in the mountains came in patches, eg 30% houses collapsed in Mansehra, 60% in Muzaffarabad, 80% in Rawalakot and Balakot etc, entire villages perched on the hillsides disappearing in mudslides. In the next 24 hours 40 aftershocks (of which only 17-18 were perceptible) added to the panic.

Beginning Saturday afternoon bad news starting coming in droves from all over and kept coming, from Peshawar, Mansehra, Garhi Habibullah, Abbottabad and even Lahore, etc. Widespread devastation was reported from Kaghan, Shinkiari, Shangla, Batal, Gul Mera, Ughi, Naran and other places not commonplace for the public. Give the government (or rather the Pakistan Army) credit. From a standing start, the Army provided the core of the relief mechanism. Supported by PAF the Army mobilised its entire helicopter fleet to carry out extensive reconnaissance of the area for damage estimation, providing quick relief wherever possible. The silver lining was the presence of the Army, itself losing over 200 dead and 400 injured, all over the mountains and valleys of Kashmir, engaged in intensive relief work within hours, providing helicopters, engineers, doctors, manpower etc. For many of those trapped under the debris of collapsing houses it may have been too late.

The critical Karokoram Highway (KKH) remains blocked due to landslides in many places along its entire 600 kms length. So is the main road to Muzaffarabad. However some alternate roads have been cleared, evacuating casualties to nearest hospitals and providing supplies is almost totally dependent upon helicopters. Limited by numbers in coping with the magnitude of the devastation, Army Aviation helicopters did magnificent work, keeping the relief momentum going. Our MI-8s and MI-17s are not enough to cope with such a catastrophe. As a former helicopter pilot (Alouette-3) with extensive mountain area casualty evacuation and forward dumping experience in Azad Kashmir, Northern Areas and Sinkiang Province of China, my heart goes out for the helicopter crews. Chopper flying in such conditions takes its toll. The wear and tear on the helicopter and crews must be monitored closely, they will push themselves beyond normal endurance limits, they should not write cheques neither their body nor their equipment can cash. But I say this with pride that in the face of this catastrophe our "eagles" will not listen and I salute them for it! During cyclone relief operations in East Pakistan in 1970 (when only two MI-8s and two Alouette-3 took the load), then Col (later Maj Gen) Nasirullah Khan Babar pushed us (and himself) to extreme limits. He and Maj (later Brig) Tirmizi put in as many flying hours as any of us during the day, than attended daily "Relief Coordination Conferences" till late at night!

Maj Gen Shaukat Sultan, Director General (DG) Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) initially confirmed 18000 dead and over 41000 injured. With villages perched precariously on sides of the mountains, and the timing (about 9 am) during Ramazan, one fears that this will be revised upwards many times over, it could well be beyond 60000 dead, a mind-boggling 90000 to 100000, even more. Almost all my company employees (security and courier personnel) from Azad Kashmir, Kaghan and Kohistan valleys lost some loved ones, my driver Ashraf rushing home to Muzaffarabad on hearing about the sad demise of his mother. Col (Retd) Qayyum, our Group Zonal Head for Rawalakot, with whom I could only get through on 11 Oct, lost 9 in his immediate vicinity, 3 of his children were buried under the debris but survived. Throughout the mountains, this human tragedy will be played out from town to town, entire villages have disappeared. A blinding thunderstorm the same night made the roads impossible and turned the rubble into mudslides.

Let's provide disaster relief and restore basic services of electricity, water, etc, we can discuss shortcomings later. No government can really plan for the worst. The first few days are always chaotic and haphazard. Give the government credit at least for mobilising relief swiftly. Pervez Musharraf led from the front, showing the way by visiting nearly all disaster areas and many hospitals. The "Disaster Relief Cell" in the PM's House will certainly do good but will it be enough? The challenge is to create organization from haphazard, disjointed effort, to create clean orderly flowlines from chaos. The tough mountain terrain means the best cannot be good enough.

The need is to set up a permanent Disaster Management Organisation, the US has its FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency). Call it anything else here but let's get on with it. Quoting my article "Coping with disaster" written only a month ago to the day on September 8 after Hurricane "Katrina" had hit the US, "whether it comes with a warning or is a surprise, coping with any kind of disaster, whether natural or man-made, does not differ in essentials. Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) are common for both. First and foremost we must pre-position supplies, particularly potable water, meals ready to eat (MRE), medical requisites, blankets, tents, etc. One may include containerised field ambulance units ready to match up with earmarked doctors. For mass evacuation, vehicles must be earmarked as well as possible destinations. Flooding being commonplace in most disasters, collapsible flat-bottom boats with outboard motors and submersible generators and pumps should also be stored. Lightly armed troops trained to handle both disaster relief and law and order must be earmarked, carrying only vitally necessary equipment to avoid being over-burdened. Civilian personnel to supervise and administer relief efforts, medical staff, communications personnel, engineers with heavy earth-moving equipment and cranes, as well as containerised communication units must be clearly earmarked. "Disaster Mobilisation Plans" as well as "Disaster Relief Plans" for each area have to be coordinated and dovetailed with Provincial and Federal Plans. Sufficient Reserve Funds, activated only during an emergency, must be kept aside", unquote. This is not nuclear science, it is simple commonsense!

The disaster relief must be kept apolitical, to quote, "the command structure should flow directly from the President, a permanent "Crisis Management Agency" being established under the Chairman Joint Services Committee (CJSC) for effective coordination of ground, air and naval resources in support of the effort of the civil administration. The Ministry of Finance must devise a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) to address post-disaster issues. People will be without jobs, without food and shelter, their children will be without schools, continuing medical care will be needed and rehabilitation thereof, etc, etc. The short, medium and long-term economic consequences and remedial measures thereof have to be worked out, each disaster will have different dynamics", unquote.

Are we in Pakistan up to it or will we resort to what we normally do, the politics of exploiting tragedy?

The writer is a defence and political analyst

The battle of October 8

Dr M S Jillani

Disasters are mostly remembered for the number of people that they have killed, the property consumed by their ferocity, and the social and psychological trauma that they leave in their wake. Calamitous as these effects are, disasters also bring out all the stupidities, mistakes, wrong decisions, laxities, frailties and the ultimate incapability of human beings in conquering -- or even defending against -- the forces of nature beside the best that human nature has to offer.

The earthquake that hit Northern Pakistan on 8th October, by its severity, frequent after-shocks and the reach of its impact has brought to surface a plethora of weaknesses of our society. They range from inadequacy of our civilian crises management outfits in handling a big crisis, to almost complete dearth of personnel trained to cope with disasters involving large construction works. Some problems facing rescue and rehabilitation operations, like land slides, heavy rain on heels of a disaster, are acts of nature, which can neither be predicted nor averted. But most serious impediments to relief are weaknesses in our character, especially our habit of being indifferent to good and bad: It is no coincidence that tickets for emergency flights of PIA and special railway trains destined for the stricken areas were being sold in the black market unmindful of the fear of God. But, it should be normal activity for a people who raise prices during the holy month of Ramazan to make heavy profits.

A similar, but far more ghastly, event has been reported from the collapsed tower of the high-rise residential building at Islamabad. Most occupants hurriedly vacated the twin of the destructed tower after the adjacent structure crumpled. In haste, many occupants might not have secured their belongings. When they returned a few hours later to pick up some goods, most of them were shocked to find their apartment doors smashed and the bedrooms and almarihs rifled. They leant from the crowd outside, that the looters posed themselves as "rescuers" and "security" personnel who were "helping" the occupants in carrying their valuables to their vehicles. These happened minutes after a major disaster had struck the nation in the month of Ramazan! After this, one would like to apologise to the looters in New Orleans who one had castigated in an article after hurricane-Katrina struck in Louisiana, they, at least, did not undertake their nefarious activity during their holiest of holy months! Regrettably, reports of looting soon started reaching the press from other parts of the country.

The story of taking advantage of a grave situation does not end here. A horde of carpet-baggers have started appearing all over the place in the garb of media commentators, analysts and prayer marshals. Although very few listen to them yet they have opened shops to grab some money and some name. The "collectors" of relief goods and contribution to various funds floated by the government are already in evidence. Thanks to the legendary generosity of the Pakistani people, almost all of them -- real as well as fake -- are bound to collect hefty amounts of goods and cash without any guarantee that these donations will reach the affectees.

A major discovery emanating from the Oct. 8 calamity was the highly defective development work undertaken in areas struck by the October 8 earthquake, which may be true for other areas as well. Although the Oct 8 disaster was the worst during the last hundred years, reports from smaller towns suggested that the civil administration in some cities just evaporated after the disaster. One explanation that accompanied the report related that the collapse of administrative buildings buried most of the officers under their debris leaving no one to retrieve them, leaving the local government machinery without leadership. One refuses to buy this story. A more cogent explanation for chaos on the first day after the quake could be the sudden departure of officials to their home villages since they could not communicate with their parents and relatives on telephone, etc. One's guess proved to be right as by the third day, most of the "dead" officials had come to their offices. Such behaviour is reflective of our attachment to our kin -- something that the Asian people cherish. But what should be done with the perpetrator of a rumour that could jeopardize the local administrations.

Perhaps the most frustrating aspect of efforts to assuage the stricken people and providing relief was the disruption of communications, especially the road transport. Widespread destruction of roads and bridges accompanied by heavy rain cut off the rural areas -- even some important towns -- from the rest of the country. Even telecommunications went dead. Television sets could not function as electric supply was disrupted in most areas destroyed by the earthquake. It led to flared tempers among the affectees who would not listen to explanations and got adamant that they had been ignored deliberately due to a conspiracy. When services are resumed, resumption is attributed to the impact of protest and agitation by the affectees rather than efforts of the government. This creates an unnecessary rift between people and the government. Such contests of blaming the government are bound to happen again and again all over the affected areas. The gap between demands by public of stricken areas and inability of the government to meet them is generally so wide, that room for misunderstanding remains there all the time.

There are numerous long and short term lessons that the Oct 8 earthquake can impart.

First: Needless to say that the increasing frequencies of minor and major natural disasters in Pakistan like storms, tidal bores, droughts, floods, earthquakes, etc. demand a permanent and powerful department of crisis management which apart from remaining alert and well-equipped should sponsor research studies on phenomena that can create a crisis situation in Pakistan.

Second: Experience of the Oct 8 quake has indicated that the presence of a safe, rapid and efficient network of transport by road, railways, roads, and by air, especially the helicopters for Pakistan is essential, and that it cannot be delayed.

Third: Tele-communications, satellite communications, cellular services have become a must for disaster relief in a country having varied topography. As the mediums of communication expand, there must be a system in which various services support each other and provide alternatives in an emergency. Lack of such a system and absence of operative satellite telephones created many problems in the quake-hit mountainous regions.

Fourth: Stocks of essential supplies at critical locations in all parts of the country is perhaps the most important element of an efficient national crisis management strategy. One may refer to Amratya Sen's celebrated study on famine which laid the base for his Nobel Prize: He found that the basic cause of 1943 famine in Bengal and poverty was not shortage of food but the failure of distribution. 

The writer is a former federal secretary with an academic background in economics and sociology

Bad news, good news

Burhanuddin Hasan

The worst and the most tragic news of Pakistan's 58 year history is undoubtedly the devastating earthquake, which hit the country's northern areas, killing around 20 to 30 thousand people till the last count and razing many cities and villages in Azad Kashmir and NWFP to the ground: As time passes, the damage caused by this killer earthquake will fully unfold to the chagrin of a shocked nation.

Unbelievably, nature has been most unkind to various parts of the world this year. The tsunami devastated many countries of south East Asia, killing hundreds of thousands of people from Indonesia to Srilanka, while the hurricanes Katrina and Rita swept across southern shores of the United States, killing hundreds of people and destroying the historical city of New Orleans.

The good news coming out of the Indian foreign minister Natwar Singh's recent talks with Pakistan foreign minister in Islamabad is the decision to start the Indian visa service in January next from the Indian consulate in Karachi which had been closed down as an TALAT PLEASE SEE anti Mohajir move by the Benazir government many years ago. The Pakistan consulate in Mumbai which was closed by the Indian government in retaliation will also start functioning from the same date

This will undoubtedly help the people of both the countries who have relatives and friends in India and Pakistan a great deal. Such people had been facing great difficulties and incurring, unbearable expenses to obtain visas from Islamabad and New Delhi. Thousand of Mohajirs, residing in Karachi and other Sindh cities, who had to visit India, perforce travelled to Islamabad to obtain Indian visa at a prohibitive cost of air fare and lodging arrangements in the capital for days and even weeks sometimes. They had to undertake this troublesome journey to India to attend marriages or funerals of their near and dear ones. The opening of the Indian visa office in Karachi will ease their suffering considerably.

Likewise the decision to open the Khokrapar rail link between India and Pakistan, also in January, will facilitate the Indian and Pakistani travellers in visiting each other's countries by train at lesser expense than air travel. After a meeting with MQM deputy convener Dr. Farooq Sattar in Karachi, Natwar Singh said the Indian government is keen to promote bilateral relations including facilities for interaction between the people of the two countries, to create a congenial and cordial relationship in the subcontinent. Both countries would have to build on an environment of goodwill already created after highest level talks between the leaders.

India and Pakistan also exchanged ideas on the long standing Siachin dispute and agreed to continue their discussions so as to arrive at a common understanding before commencement of the next round of the composite dialogue in January next year. Both sides also agreed for the first time to consider options on the Sir Creek issue and delimitation of maritime boundary between the two countries, for which the joint survey should begin before the end of this year.

These are positive signs of considerable success of the on-going composite dialogue process between India and Pakistan. However, the bad news is the two countries could not achieve any breakthrough on the Kashmir impasse on which hinges the overall success of the dialogue process. President Pervez Musharaf in his meeting with Natwar Singh emphasized the importance of addressing the substantive issues particularly Jammu and Kashmir and achieving tangible progress during the third round of the composite dialogue. The president said that both countries should build on the improvement in relations and the confidence that has evolved. For that, the two countries have to approach the problems with sincerity, flexibility and boldness.

Other than Natwar Singh's visit, the successful third round of LB pools is very good news. The chief election commissioner has estimated a 100 percent turnout of voters which, if correct, is a record in the history of elections. Another record is that polling was by and large peaceful except some minor incidents and the Chief Election commissioner has received no complains of rigging. Opposition political parties are as usual clamouring against large scale poll rigging, which in the absence of any such complaints from the contestants themselves carries no weight at all. MQM backed candidates have swept Karachi and Sindh, wiping out PPP in its home ground, while government backed Muslim League candidates have won a clear majority in Punjab, NWFP and Balochistan which is a setback for the PPP and MMA both. These elections are a good omen for a clear-cut democratic dispensation at the grass root level. The political map of the country seems to have been clearly defined. The Musharaf government is now in control right down to the local levels. Opposition parties need to chalk out their future plans for general elections in 2007 in the light of the results of LB polls.

The bad news is that notwithstanding prime minister's Ramazan package, prices of essential items have increased by 30 to 50 percent. The government has failed to check price escalation, and traders, as usual, are exploiting the holy month of Ramazan for undue profiteering. Some urgent steps need to be taken by the government to check price escalation. 

The writer is a former director of PTV

Facing up to the harsh reality

A.B. Shahid

As the details of the tragedy begin to unfold, calling the recent earthquake devastating seems wholly inadequate. It is a nerve shattering experience to realize how, in a matter of seconds, houses, schools, hospitals and offices were reduced to heaps of rubble burying thousands of human beings underneath. Suffering of the survivors, thousands with serious injuries and without anyone to attend to them, compounds the tragedy for those who want to help but can't because the effected areas are simply inaccessible.

While scenes portraying the miseries of the earthquake victims bring tears to every Pakistani's eyes, the intensity of their resolve to help their brothers and sisters in NWFP and Azad Kashmir defies description. In the quake-hit areas, survivors did everything possible to rescue their brethren in distress and others in every corner of the country offered all they could spare for being sent to the quake-effected areas as relief goods. But this heart-warming effort is not bearing the fruit it deserves because of the immense logistical problems in transporting the relief goods to the effected areas.

Yet, Pakistanis pile on relief goods of every description, for that is what they must go on doing. If not today, these gifts will reach the victims tomorrow, or the day after. They know that, with winter round the corner, the victims -- without even a shelter -- will badly need tents, warm clothing, beds and blankets, food and medicines and above all, consolation and re-building their hopes and shaken aspiration. This year there will be no Eid. We have to mourn our dead and do everything we can to help those who lost their near and dear ones. It is our moral and religious duty. We know how to share both grief and joy and, by God, we will do so yet again.

To face a disaster that destroyed virtually everything across several thousand square miles of hilly terrain, no government, however resourceful, could launch a rescue operation that could swiftly reach out to every victim. However, the casual attitude adopted by successive governments towards beefing up the capabilities of the country's disaster recovery agencies, can't be condoned. Even in the federal capital, little could be done to rescue those buried under the rubble of Margalla Towers until construction companies brought in their equipment.

What was more baffling was the fact that until the evening of October 9, even the Prime Minister didn't know the full scale of the tragedy. He thought casualties would be in hundreds, and was unsure about declaring the disaster a national tragedy. His lack of knowledge was the obvious result of years of neglect of the need to maintain a disaster-proof system of vigilance over the disaster-prone Northern Areas although, after the many natural tragedies that struck this planet in 2005, this system should have been up-graded on a priority basis.

The initial response of governments across the globe was subdued not because of their apathy (unwisely condemned by our overzealous politicians) but due to our own grossly incorrect estimates of the devastation caused by the earthquake. As the scale of the tragedy is unfolding, the world is coming to our help with the right kind of assistance. My big worry is that the facilities at Islamabad's small airport may eventually prove wholly inadequate to handle incoming flights from abroad carrying rescue equipment, supplies and teams of rescue specialists.

The government may not have given priority to preparing for such eventualities but it must ensure that nearby airports (Peshawar and Lahore) are readied for round-the-clock service, and access roads to these airports are repaired at the earliest. If this is not taken in hand immediately, firstly, millions of dollars worth of relief goods may not reach the victims and secondly, perishable goods (food and medicines) may be wasted. The worst possibility is that large chunks from piles of these goods may be whisked away to private warehouses by criminal minded caretakers of the relief goods.

This tragedy has highlighted the need for beefing up disaster recovery capability not just in the hilly northern areas but countrywide because, in the coming months and years, this planet will face the consequences of natural disasters of a wider variety, thanks to the unabated green house effect and planet warming. Although, it went largely unreported, the mega city of Karachi was shaken by mild earthquakes, at least four times in the past two months. It is mind boggling to imagine what would happen in this city of 17 million inhabitants if a natural disaster (a tsunami, an earthquake or a Katrina-like storm) hits this city.

That the huge size of Karachi's population that will be affected by such disasters, is one dimension of the horrible dream; the other, more bewildering dimension is the big question mark that hangs over the ability of the city's sky-scrappers to withstand major disasters. The way the KBCA-builders club has violated building regulations while constructing these apparently strong structures doesn't augur too well for the government who will have to pick up the pieces after a disaster. The collapse (in less than five seconds) of the visibly strong Margalla Towers should bring into question the virtual open house declared by building control authorities on building fragile but beautiful looking sky-scrappers.

A glaring misdeed of the authority-builder club has been brought to light by the fact that government offices in the quake-hit areas were the first to collapse. Tragically, many of these were schools and colleges. As a result of their collapse, hundreds of children and teenagers lost their lives. It is the most heart rending tragedy among the many tragedies that befell the quake-hit areas. How gravely were construction rules violated in raising these buildings, is absolutely mind boggling. The question begging an answer is whether those responsible for collusion with the builders or criminal negligence of their supervisory duties, will be taken to task.

Finally, this disaster could have serious repercussions for the government. In recent years, rising poverty has unmistakeably diluted the credibility of the government. Unfortunately, instead of being addressed credibly, this harsh reality has persistently been denied by the government. It is extremely important that the government, especially the inexperienced Prime Minister, realizes that the speed, appropriateness and adequacy of the relief effort would be the deciding factor in sustaining or weakening beyond repair the credibility of his government. History is replete with instances wherein governments, who failed to come up to the expectations of the people in providing speedy relief to victims of natural disasters, were booted out by the people. 

The writer, a retired banker and economist, is a freelancer

Islamabad's 9/11: a national tragedy 

Noman Sattar

The writer is a senior research officer at the Area Study Centre at the Quaid-e-Azam University

Since the terrorist attacks of September 11, "9/11" has become a symbol of an unexpected (terrorist) attack, a national tragedy and trauma. These attacks changed not only the US, but the whole world, as America continues a War against Terrorism, and as such attacks continue in different parts of the world. Some of such attacks have borne or have been given the same label. The attacks on a Bali nightclub was Indonesia's 9/11; the attack on Madrid train, Spain's. Last years end brought death and destruction on a massive scale to Southeast Asia in the form of tsunami. This year, attacks on London subway became Britain's 9/11. These dates have become defining moments for the respective nations, and underline an unprecedented national trauma, causing loss of lives as well as destruction.

While Pakistan has been spared such a terrorist attack, the recent tragedy resulting from a devastating earthquake comes close to being Pakistan's 9/11. It is not easy to compare a terrorist attack and an earthquake, but some similarities can be drawn. The earthquake came without a warning, literally jolting people out of their homes and offices, and burying some inside the buildings. In its grimmest aspect it buried the residents of Islamabad's Margalla Towers under the debris of the collapsed structure. At many other locations in Kashmir and NWFP, people, including school children were buried alive, in what could be seen as the fury of nature. In terms of the misery, and loss of lives and property, this was akin to Islamabad's 9/11.

This tragedy affords an opportunity to put the Twin Towers tragedy in a better perspective: after that attack and the ensuing destruction, many people would interpret it not as a terrorist attack but related it to the injustices borne by the terrorists. The scenes of misery and helplessness viewed at the collapse of the Margalla Towers reinforces the Twin Towers tragedy on a smaller scale, as people gasped for breath, buried under tons and tons of debris, gazing at imminent death. An amateur video played the next day picturing the collapse of the Margalla Tower amid cries of people compares with one video of the 9/11 attack in which the video capturing the mayhem and chaos suddenly blacks out (as the tower collapses!) A deadly earthquake, measuring 7.6, caused this havoc. The loss caused by this is going to be much bigger, probably more than 25,000 dead, and more than a million homeless. Like the 9/11 terrorist attack, the earthquake could not be anticipated. It shook the country just like the 9/11 attacks shocked America with a lethal blow, and unprecedented destruction.

An important aspect that calls for a comparison with 9/11 is the nature of the response. In New York, the immediate response to the tragedy was swift and forceful, as emergency services, especially the fire department, came forward for relief and rescue operations, becoming national heroes. Unfortunately, for some reason, the same professionalism was not displayed by the relief agencies and services during the havoc caused by hurricane Katrina recently. In the case of the 9/11 response, it was the result of years of rigorous training and plentiful resources that helped minimise the effects of a national tragedy after the initial devastatingly blow. It is pertinent and instructive to critically evaluate the nature of response in light of the tragedy at home.

According to eyewitness accounts, no sooner had the towers collapsed; people rushed to the scene and tried to make sense of the unwieldy situation, baffling even for the strong-willed. As cars lined up the roads leading to F-10, people, mostly youngsters, tried to control the flow by making room for ambulances while there was no police available for this. On the scene, people, mostly energetic volunteers, wasted no time in trying to rescue the trapped people. While officials had arrived on the scene, volunteers were still mostly managing rescue efforts. People lined up around the premises throughout the day; some even asked the Army jawans to go in and help with the rescue or allow them to go in. As bulldozers came along to lift the blocks and iron fixtures, the lack of training and professionalism was obvious.

This serious deficiency in emergency services had come to light a few years earlier when the Shaheed e Millat secretariat caught fire, and bellowed smoke and flames for hours before the blaze could be brought under control. The fire fighting seemed to be out of a comedy movie, as the lone foreman on the lone truck was hardly able to reach the top floor and the flames; how the fire was doused is history now, but a comment by CNN was poignant, that there were more people watching than there were fire-fighters to put out the fire. One wonders if the capital's fire brigade has added to its equipment or improved its fire fighting skills since. As part of its live coverage, the CNN news anchor asked a senior official if the capital Islamabad was prepared to meet the situation.

Initially the ill-fated Margalla Towers block became the focus of the deadly aftermath of the earthquake. A surviving dilapidated block surrounded by debris featured in news stories as a reminder of Islamabad's "ground zero." A grim aspect of the tragedy is that one apartment block crumbled while others withstood the shock; soon news surfaced about some foul play in its construction, involving the usual suspects. An inquiry into this aspect is only meaningful if it is transparent and thorough, and whoever is responsible is brought to justice. Even the loss of a single life would demand that.

It is time that the district administration seriously looks into such aspects of the city's security highlighted by the Margalla Towers tragedy (and the earlier fire at the secretariat); these would include better fire fighting equipment and skills; better management of traffic in an emergency (Islamabad's nightmarish traffic situation has been the focus of news recently); a check on the state of its buildings; a stricter check on building specifications; a well organised volunteer corps; and finally, provision for immediate relief for people affected by such disasters. This calls for a new Emergency Relief Services department in the city.

It is also time that the federal and local governments turn toward the small towns of the northern areas, where health and education facilities remain elementary, and construction sub-standard, despite a supposed construction boom. VIP visits and election time brings rhetoric and allocation of funds, but not much changes in terms of quality of life. The caving of school roofs is a grisly reminder of "development." If authorities had paid due attention to such aspects, many precious young lives could have been saved. After this jolt, the government needs to start a process of assessing old and new constructions in the hilly regions that mushroom without regard for public safety

While efforts continue both at governmental and public levels to rescue those trapped inside the collapsed buildings, and to recover those buried alive in other places, and to offer medical help to those who need it, the task is Herculean. In this task, the role of young volunteers is worth commending, who wasted no time in initiating rescue efforts. Media also played a big role in highlighting the magnitude of the tragedy. After a tragedy of such colossal proportions, complete recovery and rehabilitation would take months; but for many, the vacuum in their lives would never be filled. In the aftermath, there would be many personal accounts, official explanations, and unofficial viewpoints about what has been Pakistan's biggest natural disaster. One cannot be prepared for a natural disaster of such magnitude, but better civic planning and a more organised response can help in mitigating the suffering and the losses.

12-10-05

Confronting a national calamity

Shireen M Mazari

There are so many developments that one felt motivated enough to comment upon this week, but the national calamity of the earthquake that struck our country on October 8 put everything in an altered perspective. The sheer scale of the destruction has left such a sense of helplessness in the face of this force of nature, that one compulsively continues to watch the scenes of horror relayed through the media in an effort to make the unbelievable believable. That the innocent were the worst hit makes it even more difficult to accept, and the impact of the devastation and destruction has impacted almost everyone across the country in one way or another. Of course any natural disaster leaves one with a sense of tragic helplessness, but when it happens to one's own, it has an altogether different dimension of suffering and the loss of so many from amongst us, makes one wonder how our nation will recover from this tragedy.

But the scale of the disaster has also brought to the fore the innate empathy and spirit of giving that still pervades the nation. Of course, the help from the international community has been a critical input in the relief efforts, especially in terms of provision of specialist relief help and some of the private international donations, like the one from a Chinese business man in Hong Kong, have been humbling, as has been the super human commitment to rescue efforts by teams of British, Chinese, Turkish, Iranian, French and many other nationals. At moments like these, one can only show gratitude for whatever help that the international community gives -- since it is not incumbent upon anyone to do so. And whatever the politics, this is not the time to comment or take issue on that count -- even if one is at a loss to understand why a national tragedy should be seen as a means to improve relations with India which have their own dynamics embedded in some very real conflictual issues. In these tragic times, all international help evokes a sense of immense gratitude and strength.

Beyond this, what has really been absolutely heart rending has been the response of our own nation -- from all over the country. The response of civil society has been the greatest source of strength for this grieving nation and the manner in which everyone has come forward not only with material help, but also with offerings of their time and professional skills for all manner of tasks has been a binding force in this moment of trial for the nation. Realising the inadequacies and limitations of state infrastructure and response times, volunteers have organised their assistance through their own means. In the immediate aftermath of the earthquake, rescue efforts were initiated and sustained by local people and volunteer professionals. The state's response was slow even in Islamabad because of a lack of capacity and also the non-existence of rapid disaster response structures. But the people of this nation have not been found wanting on any count. From those who used their bare hands to try and dig out survivors from the rubble of collapsed structures to those who immediately organized teams of volunteer doctors and aid packages to be sent to the disaster sites, to the millions who gave whatever they could to those who desperately sought some way or the other to contribute, there has been a sense that the nation can respond effectively to the needs of its people with an unquestioning sense of commitment. In terms of monetary and material contributions, this nation has delivered.

So this is not the time for negativism, but the massive humanitarian spirit of the majority of this nation has also highlighted the meanness and profiteering opportunism of a few who chose to up the price of truck rentals and necessities like blankets and the latha for coffins. And just as one was thankful that there was no large scale looting in the immediate aftermath of the earthquake, especially at the site of the Margalla Towers in Islamabad, one heard reports of the organised looting that did in fact take place at this site.

And while no one could have prevented the earthquake and its devastation, questions do arise about whether we could have reduced the loss of human life even by a small margin if proper rules had been enforced in terms of building laws. This is not just with reference to the collapse of Margalla Towers in Islamabad, which was a most tragic reflection not only of the CDA's inability or lack of desire to enforce the rules that do exist on paper, but also of the continuous changing of rules to accommodate influential or monetary pressures. Not only had the CDA changed its building rules in terms of the percentage of built up area on a plot of land, it continues to change laws allowing for ever more built up areas on small plots also.

One hears that this time round someone will be held responsible for what happened to Margalla Towers, but we have to wait and see. After all, who was eventually penalised for the avoidable tragedy of Sozo Park in Lahore? But, the tragedy of lax rules and accommodations made in terms of building standards extends beyond Islamabad. After all, look at the tragic collapse of buildings, especially schools in the worst hit areas of the earthquake. Were there even basic building rules being enforced here in terms of public places like courts, schools and universities? It is common practice to build schools in villages and small towns with barely any foundations at all. You just raise four walls and put on a roof. Now we have lost an entire future generation as a result. Will we now learn some lessons from this nightmare? Will the faces of those dead children haunt our consciences as we seek to flaunt regulations? So far our record on this count is abysmal.

Once the immediate needs of the human tragedy have been dealt with, there is a need to expose the criminals within our nation whose actions lead directly to death and destruction. Which brings us to the role of the state and its response to this earthquake. Given the limitations inherent in our state infrastructures and resources, the state's response was quick to take shape after the initial shock. But the people in the outlying areas have had to face days without state help. Could not food and blankets have been airdropped more rapidly to the outlying areas? Also, while the presence on the ground of the President and Prime Minister are a source of comfort that one has not been forgotten, ministers and other state functionaries serve no purpose by constantly using up state resources to tour disaster sites. In fact, they often impede rescue work through the time-consuming VIP routines. And they do add to people's resentment and anger. Our nation has indeed come through with a remarkable spirit of humanism and Pakistanis have shown they are indeed a fine people. Certainly, this is not a time for negativism, but it should be a time for serious introspection.

The writer is director general of the Institute of Strategic Studies in Islamabad

Black Saturday and the neglect

Imtiaz Alam

The school children, as thousands of others, were crying for help from beneath the rubble of various schools, but people mourned and prayed in helplessness as they waited in vain for more than two days for any rescue operation. And the story of death and misfortune doesn't end here as the death toll rises beyond official understatement. Most reports from far-flung areas invariably suggest that no one has gone to the rescue of the victims, even after 55 hours, except one or two big towns or unending aerial surveys. However, many "fortunate" buried under the debris of Margalla Tower Apartments in Islamabad were rescued, thanks to the efforts by Rapid Rescue Force sent by the UK and media focus on the capital's privileged. Why are people protesting? Whom should they curse? The nature? The state authorities attuned to killing, not rescuing? Or beg for forgiveness from the Almighty? Find fault with our own un-preparedness and a flawed course of "development"?

Never in the past has such a natural calamity struck Pakistan with such ferocity and at such a scale. The Black Saturday's earthquake has brought widespread destruction, around the epicentre of the quake, in the Hazara division and Kashmir killing thousands people and destroying most infrastructure and houses leaving more than three million people homeless, according to rough estimates. A state that failed to mobilize its over-pampered machinery to rescue its citizens in their time of distress is not, perhaps, capable to even estimating the depth and breadth of the destruction. The state machinery equipped with all kinds of weapons of mass destruction and attuned to coercion and killing could not have the heart to have ever thought of contingency plans, nor had the time to prepare in advance to meet such a contingency. (The MET Office has still not been upgraded, even after the Tsunami. Whatever up-gradation that is taking place leaves much to be desired)

Of course, it was too sudden, as all earthquakes are. But look at how clumsily the government has responded? It has failed to undertake any rescue operation, except in Islamabad and Muzaffarabad. It was 30 hours late in making an emergency call to the international community and asking for the right equipment. It showed its insensitivity towards the people by first declaring a relief fund of one billion rupees and, subsequently, five billion rupees with which you cannot even reconstruct Muzaffarabad and compensate its victims. The concerned citizens, and thank God in their millions, who have promptly responded, do not know how to reach out to the victims. The emergency centre established in the PM Secretariat or PM House has only one telephone line (Sic!). It took one day to announce a three-day national mourning. It's better to say nothing about the government's continuing misjudgement of the havoc. How can people bare with such a ruling lot that is so insensitive to the misery of the people. That is why people are protesting in the worst calamity hit areas which have, otherwise, always been neglected in terms of development.

Most encouraging is the response from our illustrious people, who in their thousands flocked to the areas of destruction. While the authorities in the capital were sleeping, these were the common people who with their bare hands were trying hard to do the rescue work. Almost whole rescue and rehabilitation work in the far-flung areas is being done by the people in grief. And, by the way, where is our national leadership? Will it come into action only to politicise on the corpses of our dear ones? The state exposed its omnipotence in the time of urgency. Where did they disappear who can takeover a whole country in a matter of a few hours? It was not difficult to move, even on foot, the battalions stationed in Hathian or Abbotabad to Balakot. Indeed, we must thank the United Kingdom, Turkey, China and Japan for their prompt response. But where was the patron of Non-Nato ally whose choppers are still awaited from next door Afghanistan? And these peanuts of 100,000 dollars speak for their 'friendship'. When you will yourself announce one/five billion rupees for relief work, the international community is not expected to throw money. Since the devastation has taken place across the LoC, one expects both India and Pakistan to create a new chapter of cooperation for the rehabilitation of the oppressed Kashmiris.

No doubt, this bloody earthquake was worst in its magnitude at a Richter scale of 7.6, which is so far the highest, in its intensity but much lower than being forecasted by international seismic agencies. The experts have long been warning of serious earthquakes in this region and forewarned of tens of times more powerful that could kill a million on the Ganges plain or southern flanks of the Himalayan, where last Saturday's quake has struck. The earthquake is the result of -- not any sin committed by the innocent students of Balakot -- the gradual geological movement of Indian subcontinent's tectonic plate northward at a rate of about 40 mm/yr colliding with the Eurasian tectonic plate. The natural calamities are often attributed to God's punishment of the sinful -- the real one always escaping and innocent and indefensible invariably paying the price. They are, rather, the product of certain discernable physical developments. The earthquakes are caused, if our Maulanas take the pain to learn, by the motion of tectonic plates when immense strain accumulates along fault lines where adjacent plates meet and the rock separating the plates give way, sudden seismic ground-shaking movements occur, i.e., earthquake.

Given the forecast of ten times greater earthquakes in our region, and they can occur anytime, it is imperative that we prepare for the worst in advance. All infrastructure and private reconstruction in the probable epicentre of possible quakes will have to be undertaken while keeping this in mind. You have to have earth-moving machinery and necessary equipments that are equally good for reconstruction and evenly spread out. While the whole physical infrastructure has to be reconstructed, alternative means of transportation and communication needs to be built, such as helicopter service. Focusing on the immediate demands of rehabilitation work, we must concentrate on the reconstruction of the whole devastated region. A major chunk of the development budget should be diverted to these areas and a master plan should be made to rebuild it. After failing to rescue our people from the rubble, we must not let negligence impede the reconstruction work. And most importantly, save the rehabilitation fund and reconstruction work from the swindlers gathered at various levels.

There is a greater need to set sound standards for the construction of infrastructure, houses and plazas. It is not enough to punish one builder that he must. We have seen a mushroom growth of plazas that have not been built according to the safe and required standards, such dangerous buildings should be identified and brought down to avoid further human tragedy. Lastly, one must ask, how can we reconstruct and rebuilt? Who are we -- who do not have a right to elect or throw out our rulers? And, in the absence of this fundamental right, how can one ask anyone to resign for negligence? A nation which cannot make a foot-constable accountable has to suffer the unbearable. 

The writer is Editor Current Affairs, The News, and Editor South Asian Journal

Earth-shattering lessons

 Mahjabeen Islam

Pakistan seems to lurch from one crisis to another. Most of the crises have been man-made and sadly this one from the Almighty is equivalently mighty.

Seismologists have known that tectonic plates in the Himalayas would shift and have warned of massive earthquakes, wreaking even greater destruction than this latest one in Pakistan that hit 7.6 on the Richter scale. Geologists report the movement of the Indian subcontinent northward at the rate of five centimetres a year. The actual earthquake occurs when energy stored along geological faults like the Himalayan one, is suddenly released. The spine-chilling prediction is that earthquakes could kill a million in the Ganges plain.

Hurricane Katrina was accurately predicted landfall and all. The devastation it wrought was due mainly to the breakage of the levees, as well as the tardy government response. Earthquakes do not lend themselves to accurate prediction, making them even more sinister and deadly. Pre-Katrina those with the means left Louisiana and Mississippi. The carnage post-Katrina is incredible even now. It managed to expose America's underclass and the whole nation stands shamed.

President Bush has this unusual knack of doing the most trivial at the most critical of times. When the first plane hit the World Trade Centre on September 11, 2001 he was reading to a group of elementary school kids, and even after being told of it, continued to read. Perhaps it is beside the point that the book he was "reading" he was holding upside down. While Katrina was pounding New Orleans, FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Authority) was dozing, Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice was traipsing to a Broadway play and President Bush was strumming a guitar given to him at a naval base in California.

Thousands were camped in the Super Dome in New Orleans and the Astrodome in Houston, and many spent three whole days without food and water. President Bush initially toured the area in a helicopter, not himself making landfall, and it took a week for the head of FEMA to resign. Incidentally the FEMA head was testimony to Bush's cronyism, for he only had experience managing Arabian horses and none whatever with disasters.

Margalla Towers in Islamabad crumpled to a heap much like the World Trade Centre had on 9/11. To his immense credit, President Musharraf accompanied by Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz was there within a few hours of the earthquake. For having grabbed power and for hanging on to it tenaciously and with dubious legality, Musharraf is not on my list of favourite people. Journalistic integrity forces me however, to give the credit where it is indeed due. It was truly intrepid of him to climb over the rubble and inspect rescue efforts. Especially since the ground below wavered in the form of several aftershocks.

Pakistan and especially its government could never be acclaimed for high efficiency. And thus I am forced to deduce that Musharraf learned from Bush's inappropriate response in the face of Katrina. And the national browbeating that Bush received, deservedly well orchestrated by the media.

And sadly the contrasts worsen. Bush heads the world's sole superpower; Musharraf is president of one of the poorest nations on earth. While the American people take news of the death of a loved one stoically, with a few sniffs into a handkerchief, and Pakistanis wail unabashedly, America's is a blame-oriented society. Apportioning blame, however, can be important for future improvement and is also representative of a society where legal recourse exists.

Katrina brought a super-power to its knees. How can a country with an unchecked population, substandard infrastructure, wealth conglomerated in the elite five percent, rampant corruption and absent disaster preparedness, ever cope with this devastating quake?

Saif Hussain, President-elect Structural Engineers Association of Southern California says: "Most Pakistanis may not even be aware of the high seismic hazard that exists in most of the country. I grew up in Karachi never realizing that the seismic hazard exposure of that region is almost as great as that of Los Angeles! In fact the Uniform Building Code (UBC) designates Karachi as Seismic Zone 4, the maximum seismic zonation level and the same as Los Angeles. Most of the western and northern parts of Pakistan are at an equal or somewhat higher seismic hazard level."

Apparently the earthquake engineering field has undergone great advancements, led by the United States and Japan. India seems to have made great strides as well, but the rest of the world has lagged behind. What Hussain said next broke my heart: "A few months ago I contacted the director of an international non-profit organization, headquartered in California that works in the area of earthquake hazard mitigation in third world countries which contain zones of high seismicity. He informed me that they had successful programmes running in almost every country they had approached, except for Pakistan where bureaucratic obstacles had made progress impossible, despite the availability of international funding sources."

As I write this the toll from the earthquake is rising. Entire villages seem to have been consumed. One victim beneath the debris was communicating by cell phone, and said his family was with him, all awaiting rescue, another had to have his legs cut off to be saved. The government is being very generous in its offers of aid to victims, promising Rs. 50,000 each. A billion rupees have been put in the Presidential fund and most news reports portray a rapid and all out government response. The inaccessibility of the northern areas has undoubtedly resulted in help not reaching there.

What I fear is that the initial enthusiasm will die down and so will the rehabilitation of the thousands left shattered by this bolt from the blue. How will a country that is unable to feed its people, provide potable water, exercise population control, secure a safe environment, educate to basic literacy and lower its high unemployment rate cope with a disaster of this magnitude?

President Musharraf was not just courageous in visiting the collapsed Margalla Towers, he was philosophically articulate as well. It is "a test for me, my Prime Minister and indeed the people of Pakistan" he said. The Quran promises punishment for transgressions, and tests to catalyse spiritual elevation. Only God in His infinite wisdom could know where this calamity would be classified. It may be a test for some and a punishment for others. Semantics such as this must be set aside, though, and as a nation we must be jolted awake so as to look beyond petty personal gain. When will our patriotism graduate from passionate rendition of nationalistic songs to truly putting state before self?

We ought to take stock of our deficiencies which seem innumerable, and our assets which appear paltry and develop a cogent plan of action for the national good.

In Al-Baqara, 2:286, God says: "On no soul does God place a burden greater than it can bear". Individuals go through the cycle of denial, anger, bargaining, depression and finally acceptance. As a nation this must be a point for pause for Pakistan. Assess, redress and prepare; never forgetting that the one that seismologists say shall claim a million, is yet to come. 

The writer a physician based in Toledo, Ohio is a freelance activist

Rally around the flag

Hit and run

Shakir Husain

The entire world has seen the horrific images from various parts of Pakistan, which have been decimated by the earthquake over the weekend leaving thirty thousand dead, and another fifty thousand injured. According to experts, these numbers could skyrocket unless immediate aid is not delivered to the worst hit areas. While we have been seeing terrible images from the ill-fated Margalla Towers, the situation in Azad Kashmir is catastrophic with virtually no aid reaching the survivors till Monday evening.

What has been heart-warming for me has been the overwhelming response of the average Pakistani to this national calamity. The PAF Museum in Karachi was swamped from the moment the call for help went out with people dropping off huge amounts of food, medicine, and clothing. Pakistanis from all walks of life gave whatever they could to help their countrymen hit by the earthquake -- the most severe in almost a hundred years. For the first time in a long time, people put aside their political, provincial, and ethnic differences and rallied together. To compensate for the horrific scenes on the television which give one goose bumps, we have also seen scenes which give us hope that the future could be promising. Students making care packages till 2 in the morning; the businessman who hired two trucks to pile them with urgent supplies and driving off personally with his crews to deliver the goods; the factory worker buying some atta with his meagre 4,000 rupee salary to donate -- the list is endless. People have been thronging to relief centres to offer their services, money, and are willing to go to the remotest parts of the country to help out with the massive relief effort.

Even the mela-like National Assembly which is known for its fowl language and bar-room brawl environment came together to put aside political differences for a change and put a solid front behind the relief efforts. I would urge people to follow this rare show of solidarity and unity and give generously. Both the President and the Prime Minister have set up relief funds along with countless government agencies. For those like me who would rather give to private charities, there is the Edhi Foundation, the Citizens Foundation, FOCUS -- an Agha Khan Network Organisation, and countless other private charities who one can give to. For overseas Pakistanis who would like to be able to donate money online, there is the Citizens Foundation website which accepts credit card donations. The national carrier, PIA, has offered to fly any and all relief goods free of charge so overseas Pakistanis can contact their nearest PIA office to send across whatever they can.

There has been criticism on the speed of the response to the earthquake, the delivery of relief to far-flung areas among other things. I would urge everyone that this is not the time to engage in any of this -- there will be plenty of time in the aftermath of this disaster to pour over every detail. It can wait. This has been the worst natural disaster Pakistan has faced in our history on a scale which has never been seen before. As a developing nation there is a lot we need to do and learn from others in how to cope with disasters of this scale. However, I do think that it is about time we set up a National Crisis Centre to cope with tragedies like this one.

While the next few months will be extremely trying for the people of this country, I do think that the Government should start thinking about the long term plan to help the affected people. They have lost their loved ones, homes, their livelihoods, and their meagre possessions - it is imperative that their homes, their schools, and their lives are rebuilt. The Citizens Foundation is launching a two pronged relief operation -- the first component of which will provide immediate relief while the second component calls for building 20,000 homes. The Government would be smart to look at this approach. With winter approaching arrangements need to be made to relocate the affected populations to temporary shelters as well.

While Civil Society and the international community responding extremely generously to this disaster, I have just one request for the Government. Unusual for this space but just one. Rampant profiteering is going on in the aftermath of the earthquake. Rents in Islamabad have gone up by thirty to forty percent as families who have lost their homes are looking for some form of shelter. The Government should do what it should have a long time ago and that is to introduce rent controls and to take action against those who violate them. Transporters are charging a premium from those who want to go to their homes in the North. For example the fare from Karachi to Muzaffarabad was a PKR1,000 pre-quake and is now running at anywhere between PKR 1300-1500. Burial shrouds are being sold at 100% premiums on the news that they have run out of them in places like Balakot. In my opinion anyone profiteering from a tragedy like this should be sentenced to at least ten years of hard labour -- preferably rebuilding homes in the North.

I would urge people to keep thinking about the destroyed lives, and to remember that this is far from over. To help rebuild the lives of hundreds of thousands of people who have been affected will take a concerted effort for a couple of years at least. When the rebuilding begins, I would urge the Government to examine who built the last set of buildings like the girls' school in Balakot and ensure that they are built to withstand earthquakes. This is also a time for the Government to look at the construction going on across Pakistan and whether it would withstand a natural disaster of this scale or less. My guess is that 90% of the buildings would fall short of any international standard.

The writer is an entrepreneur and business consultant