Lingering apathy
By 1960, the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki had become modern cities with hundreds of thousands of residents and thriving economies. They were not just part of the Japanese post-war economic miracle. They were the worst-affected parts of the country, flattened by the American nuclear bombs dropped on them just 15 years earlier.
In 2020, Pakistan is still planning to rebuild the city of Balakot, which was torn apart by the 2005 earthquake. Yes, in 15 years, a war-ravaged Japanese economy went from broke to boom and rebuilt an entire country from piles of rubble. In the same amount of time, Pakistan barely put together a plan. Where Japan rose and soared like a phoenix from the ashes, we ran around and crashed like a headless chicken. While some may credit the Japanese work ethic for the country’s rise, that would be an insult to the principal factor — the Japanese actually wanted to rebuild.
After the 2005 earthquake, the government had decided that the entire city of Balakot would be moved about 20 kilometres away to distance it from the fault-lines underground. Residents objected, and many began reconstructing in the same locations. Just as well, or they would have spent years living in shelters like so many residents that had faith in Islamabad. A decade later, the government explained away the delay by saying that land acquisition was taking time.
While the Musharraf government sang self-praise for its earthquake response, it could not even get the literal groundwork done on one of its flagship relief projects. This does not absolve the PPP or the PML-N governments of responsibility. However, we must ask: where is the inquiry into the people that originally made the New Balakot plan? Dozens, if not hundreds of government officials, have been jetting around the world to donor conferences and the like, enjoying the high life, while the people they were ‘representing’ suffered and waited in squalor. To this day, even the original aid funds are not properly accounted for.
Even now, the recent announcement of New Balakot city was not even about work starting, but rather that it will begin in two months. Just like dozens of similar statements in years past. The only difference was that the inauguration will be done by Prime Minister Imran Khan, rather than PM Abbasi, or PM Nawaz, or PM Ashraf, or President Zardari, or PM Gillani, or PM Aziz, or General Musharraf. By the time the city is actually liveable, we would not be surprised if a few more names can be thrown into this list.
We must also question the current reconstruction plan, which looks more like a standard housing colony rather than a functional city to replace the one that was flattened. The plan only provides for 2,275 plots for earthquake victims. The city of Balakot had more than 30,000 residents in 2005 at the time the earthquake struck it. Interestingly, the new plan also has around 4,600 other residential plots and a golf course.
This brings up the question, how many golfers lived in Balakot before the earthquake? We would not be surprised if the number is in the single digit. But we do know that many avid golfers down-country wouldn’t mind buying summer homes in the scenic region, which makes us to think whether this project is ever about helping the poor earthquake survivors who feel the terrible tremors even on the 15 anniversary of the unforgettable tragedy.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 9th, 2020.
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