Whither Government?
GUEST BLOG by Imaan H. Mazari
In Pakistan, critics are extremely popular. The reason being the fact that we all continue to criticize every single initiative taken in the country, regardless of it actually making sense. The ANP, along with several other segments of our society, opposed the construction of the Kalabagh Dam, for a range of reasons. One of the most pertinent reasons they presented was that Nowshera would drown had this dam been constructed.
The tragic irony here is that Noshwera actually drowned without the dam. We criticize without realizing how many lives we can save, by seeing something through. This generalizes to our governments, past and present. There is no consistent policy line that is followed, where foreign affairs, illiteracy or any other major areas of concern are put forth.
So while Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa is drowning and our fellow brothers and sisters there have no way of moving forward, the President of our country has decided to flee. What’s worse is his choice of country to visit at this point in time. The UK being that ridiculous choice, due to David Cameron’s absolutely preposterous remarks regarding our country. These remarks were solely made to please India, and our President not only visited the UK, met David Cameron, but he also failed to extract an apology or any sort of remorse on the part of Cameron for making the statements he did.
One feels rather frustrated thinking of how the average citizen lacks the rights and ability to change how things are going. What’s even more frustrating is the fact that our government and its officials are seen to be absolutely crass and insensitive when it comes to a crisis they have an obligation to address. The monsoon comes every year. It’s a season in this country which we’ve had for 63 years. So why is it that the government cannot gear the country towards better disaster management, knowing that thousands of lives are lost each year due to the monsoon rains?
In addition to this, we see that the government hasn’t even set up any camps or initiated any sort of relief effort where these flood victims are concerned. All the relief effort is either of private individuals or the UN. Even NGOs have failed in this regard as not one NGO camp is seen between Risalpur and Noshwera, despite the fact that the latter is the worst hit area. Whereas, the NGOs inaction can be seen as depressing, the government’s failure to live upto the social contract it has with its people, is simply unacceptable.
