| 23 February 2005 | Wednesday | 13 Muharram 1426 |
Sindh shindig
Gaps in relief efforts
The international community should take note of Afghanistan's "fragile" structure as pointed out in a UN report. Released on Monday, the first-ever Afghanistan Human Development Report paints a gloomy picture of the country and warns that it could "easily tumble back into chaos".
Unless the world took a broad and long-term view of its needs, Afghanistan could "collapse into an insecure state." This will, it said, constitute a threat to its people and to the international community.
The focus of the report is on the state of human resources in Afghanistan - literacy, life expectancy, the condition of women and children, and unemployment.
Almost 50 per cent of Afghans are unemployed, only 29 per cent over 15 years of age were literate, life expectancy is 45 years, and the education system was the "worst in the world" with 80 per cent of schools destroyed during the war.
Realistically, the report takes note of the acute security situation, and says that the war on terror and drugs does not mean that human security should take a back seat.
Since the fall of the Taliban regime more than three years ago, Afghanistan has taken a number of steps towards representative government. Chosen the head of state by the Loya Jirga in June 2002, Mr Hamid Karzai was elected president last October by a popular vote.
During these three years his government has many achievements to its credit. These include the re-creation of a bureaucratic structure destroyed by war, the improvement in security environs in Kabul, the restoration of communications, the repair of roads and bridges, and the return of a large number of Afghan refugees.
However, much more remains to be done, especially in terms of taming the rebellious warlords, who are a law unto themselves. They maintain well-armed militias, defy the Karzai government and have turned the provinces into their fiefdoms.
Disciplining them is not easy, because the Afghan national army has not reached the stage where it can take on these elements. More unfortunately, the 8,000-strong Nato-led International Security Assistance Force has restricted itself to Kabul and Kunduz.
At a recent Nato meeting, the alliance decided to increase the number of troops by an unspecified number, but a marginal increase would hardly meet the challenging task it faces.
The truth is that in addition to the warlords' militias, there are thousands of well-armed mercenaries without any loyalties. The Taliban have been weakened, but they still retain the ability to carry out hit-and-run attacks.
The current lull in their activity is attributed to Afghanistan's harsh winter, and observers expect a new wave of attacks by the Taliban in spring. There are also brigands and freebooters who operate with impunity in the countryside and loot and harass people. For these reasons, many doubt whether the Karzai government will be able to hold the parliamentary election due in April.
If the international community wants to help Afghanistan it must enable the Karzai government to improve the security situation. The pace of reconstruction, painfully slow at the moment, cannot be quickened because relief workers are abducted or murdered.
This has also reduced the Karzai government's ability to absorb the aid pledged by donors. Without a perceptible improvement in the security situation, relief agencies and the government itself cannot undertake the projects urgently needed for providing succour to the people. A continuation of the status quo could only add to chaos, strengthen the warlords and bandits and prolong the misery of the Afghan people.
Sindh shindig
According to our staff reporter, a call for a cease fire between Sindh Chief Minister Arbab Ghulam Rahim and the minister he dismissed from his cabinet, Mr Imtiaz Shaikh, hasn't really held.
But following intervention by the government's trouble shooter, Mr Mushahid Hussain, there's less vitriol around. The prime minister has also taken a hand in the matter and, ruling out any governmental change in Sindh, has said the PM's inspection team will look into the charges levelled against Mr Shaikh.
This approach was earlier outlined by the PML president, Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, who claimed that the party high command was not consulted before Mr Shaikh was sacked - itself an intriguing aspect of the episode. The important thing is that the inspection team's investigation should be thorough and impartial because the accusations made are of a serious nature.
Whether one particular individual was involved or not, irregularities in land deals and revenue matters are deeply embedded in the system. It's a wonder why the Sindh chief minister has not broadened his concern to look into the activities of the land mafia that has held Karachi in thrall for years and which has been much commented upon.
The public good is best served when actions are not seen as based on personal or political preferences and prejudices. No one has come out untainted from the affair, which indeed, irrespective of this one case, has already led to demands for greater transparency and accountability of officials at all levels, both provincial and federal and both civilians and military.
Corruption is widespread, and permeates almost every sector of life. Regrettably, the National Accountability Bureau too has fallen victim to the political polarization in the country, and the opposition has accused it of selective action.
Even when those in power do not indulge in actual corruption, they very often are guilty of abuse of office, which is equally unforgivable and which encourages wrongdoing down below. The Sindh shindig, however it ends, may hopefully focus attention on some of these issues. Meanwhile, we wait for the inspection team's report.
Gaps in relief efforts
The pace of relief work in the mountain areas in the north, which experienced heavy rain and snowfall in the past few weeks, remains slow. Several thousand people in affected areas continue to face problems on a daily basis in procuring essential commodities as many roads remain blocked and supplies are scarce.
This greatly increases the suffering of the mountain people, most of whom live on the edge of poverty. For its part, the government has been quick in providing relief and the prime minister has directed the relevant agencies to speed up their work so that help reaches those who need badly.
Some of the problems that have emerged in the course of relief efforts, however, include lack of coordination between relief agencies, the absence of proper equipment to clear roads and the continuation of bad weather in some parts which prevents dropping relief supplies by air in the more remote areas.
The government needs to put into place some strategy to deal with such situations in the mountain areas since spells of heavy rain and subsequent snowfall do occur from time to time.
There should be a comprehensive plan of action that can be put in place when a calamity strikes so that relief efforts are not duplicated in some areas while in others no help reaches at all. At the same time, proper equipment needs to be kept at key locations so that it can be used as and when required.
It is important to ensure that some sort of system is in place so that when entire towns are cut off from the rest of the country, people can subsist on supplies set aside for such eventualities. This will reduce human suffering by ensuring quick delivery of relief supplies and will also allow the government to provide help as and when needed.