Media watch: Misuse of relief and government woes

Media watch is a daily round-up of key articles featured on news websites, hand-picked by The Express Tribune web staff.

How much of relief effort comes to nothing

As authorities man relief and rescue missions across flood affected areas, Hasan Abdullah reporting for Dawn highlights instances of misuse of ongoing efforts.

While setting off for the point of origin, a sobbing man rushed towards the boat and claimed his family was stuck on the rooftop. He was taken on board and the boat rushed in the direction he had indicated. After nearly an hour of wandering around the submerged village, the man finally disclosed that his family was never there and he had in fact come to fetch his CNIC and other documents.

Flood victims told to vacate govt schools in KP

The  Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has suspended distribution of food and relief items to the flood-affected families taking shelter in government schools in Peshawar reports Akhtar Amin for Daily Times.

Jan Mohammad, another displaced person, sheltering in a government school, said, “Our crops, livestock and houses are gone, there are no food provisions, all water sources are damaged and contaminated”. He further said that his house was completely destroyed. “Nothing is left with me,” he said, adding that how could he return home empty-handed.

Diverting water to Balochistan could not save Jacobabad

Jacobabad faces a wave of floods as citizens evacuate the area despite the administration's failed attempts to prevent flooding by creating two artificial breaches reports Ramzan Chandio for The Nation.

Despite the resistance by former Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Jamali, the district government Jacobabad caused two artificial breaches in Noorwah at Jacobabad-Quetta bypass on Sunday morning and diverted the water to Balochistan. But the swelling floodwater has reached railway line Jacobabad, which increased danger of inundation of the city.

Mini-budget inevitable, as flood washes away projections


Given the impact of the floods, fiscal and public sector reforms are a recommended course of action for the upcoming budget cites a Business Recorder review.

In the aftermath of the worst flood in Pakistan's memory, there is a dire need for fiscal and public sector reforms to take the economy out of shambles. About half, or even more, of expected farming growth in the ongoing fiscal year is feared to have been washed away by water. According to various estimates, about 1-1.5 percent is seen being lopped off from the GDP growth target set for FY11.

With over two-fifth of the labour force being employed in the agri sector, which contributes one-fifth to gross national output, the negative impact on output growth and employment generation is going to hurt the economy very badly.

Pakistan flood aid pledged, country by country

The Guardian website provides an interactive layout of global donations provided to Pakistan in the wake of the floods. The full data-sheet is downloadable here.

US and UN aid for Pakistan floods: It helps fight Taliban, effects of global warming

The Christian Science Monitor's editorial board examines the flood crisis in light of the War on Terror being fought in Fata.

Militant Muslim groups in the fragile northwest, where the worst flooding has occurred, are distributing their own aid and using the crisis to turn traumatized refugees against the government and the US. Civilians in that largely lawless region are already resentful of the US for its drone attacks that have killed civilians.

All of this has the potential to bolster the Taliban and Al Qaeda in both Pakistan and neighboring Afghanistan, making it harder for the US to pacify these nations which have been launching pads for global terror attacks.

It helps that the Pentagon has lately acknowledged that climate change “will” have geopolitical impact in coming decades. The US military is now in a contest with Islamic militants in Pakistan to deliver aid.