KARACHI: The mainstream opposition parties have expressed serious reservations at the government’s fund raising effort and steps for the rehabilitation of earthquake victims. They have also expressed serious reservations over the organizational structure for relief and rehabilitation and the government claims of success at the recently concluded donors’ conferences in Geneva and Islamabad.
Leader of the opposition in the Senate Mian Raza Rabbani said the structure of relief and rehabilitation of the earthquake victims was devoid of accountability as there was no parliamentary oversight. It also lacked internal mechanism for accountability. He said that the Earthquake Relief and Rehabilitation Authority (ERRA) was created through a notification. Its section 11 has provided indemnity to all the functionaries of ERRA, right from chairman to down below, including consultants. Their action cannot be challenged in any court of law.
Mr Rabbani pointed out that the federal relief commissioner and the chairman of ERRA are officers in uniform. As a consequence, no civil law is applicable to them. They don’t even come under the purview of NAB. That is why, he said, the opposition had been demanding civil supremacy because serving generals had refused to appear before parliamentary committees. He stressed the need for parliamentary supremacy in all government acts.
With regard to the donor’s conference, he said it was essentially a lenders’ conference who pledged $3.9 billion in soft loans and $1.9 billion in grant. But no one had been told as yet how much of it would be in cash and kind. To him the donor’s conference had fallen short of what it was supposed to achieve.
Till today, he said the parliament had not been taken into confidence on how much funding had been received and how much of it was in the form of grant and loan and on what terms. The parliament was also not taken into confidence on how and where this amount had been spent so far. He said that the latest report by the Transparency International had more than exposed the regime’s hollow claims of combating corruption.
The Transparency International’s annual Corruption Perception Index for 2005 rates Pakistan at No. 144 with Congo, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan, Paraguay and Tajikistan, making it the fifth most corrupt country in the world. He pointed out that Pakistan’s rating was tied in 6th position as the most corrupt country in 2004 whereas it was at 11th position in 2003. Now it had graduated to the fifth position, which shows further a rise in corruption even after huge expenses on the so-called NAB.
He said that Pakistan’s rating for perceived corruption increased in 2005 over the 2004 rating, which itself was worse than the rating for 2003. “The establishment is dumb today but if a truly elected government had been in place, it would have blown it for political purposes.” The Musharraf regime had completed five years but corruption continued to soar, he said.
Senator Prof Ghafoor Ahmad of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal while rejecting government’s claims said that even the Asian Development Bank and World Bank’s report on October 8 earthquake’s preliminary damage and needs assessment had also expressed reservations and dissatisfaction over various measures.
According to him, the report had noted that in many areas military had not yet reached while in the areas it had established presence, relief distribution was not satisfactory. Those who can use muscle get the relief goods while the weak and the disabled are still without essential supplies.
He pointed out that the report had also referred to paucity of funds due to which relief operations could be paused after a month. “So looking from any aspect, one cannot but express dissatisfaction over government effort efforts.”
Prof Ghafoor said the problems were being faced because the military had taken control of everything, although relief and rehabilitation was not its job. It should have been handed over to the civilians who had accessibility to the people. He said that political parties had emphasized this point earlier but the government in its own wisdom decided to let the military control everything.
He claimed that wherever the affected people were not getting relief, the military was getting bad name. It is creating a distance between people and the military. He said that both the relief commissioner and his deputy were serving officers and was not accessible to the general public. He claimed that the donor’s conference failed to meet the objectives.
Parliamentary leader of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement in the National Assembly, Dr Farooq Sattar, whose party is a coalition partner, felt by and large the donor’s conference was a success, although loan component was far exceeding the grant. But he points at the stark reality that beggars can’t be choosers. At the same time, he emphasized that the government was now under an obligation to ensure transfer of each and every penny to the affected people.
Dr Farooq emphasised the need for a watchdog role of the committee set by the prime minister. He was also of the view that the mechanism for relief and rehabilitation work must be sanctified through an act of the parliament because a mere executive order of the prime minister was not enough. It must be debated and passed by the parliament, he said, hoping that it would open the way for bringing the opposition on board in the process because it was a long haul. The government, he said would have to go extra mile in this regard.
Dr Farooq said that about Rs300 million would be disbursed every day, therefore there was a need for a mechanism that was not only accountable but would also ensure quality not only of shelters but other facets of removing physical and economic disabilities.
He was of the view that in order to dispel opposition’s apprehensions, international auditors should be inducted in the process as it would add to the credibility of the government and make the process more transparent.
