ISLAMABAD, May 12: The dilly-dallying tactics adopted by the Punjab government in endorsing the establishment of National Disaster Management Authority are being seen as possibly the last hurdle in the setting up of this vital organisation, sources told Dawn.

Provincial Law Minister Raja Basharat confirmed that Punjab had certain reservations about the proposed NDMA and as such it was not ready to endorse it.

Provincial governments, following Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz’s decision to set up the National Disaster Management Commission (NDMC) and National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) in February, were asked to get resolutions passed from their provincial assemblies in support of a legislative cover for the NDMA.

The prime minister was enthusiastic about this plan because most of the countries in the world, especially those prone to disasters, and almost all of Pakistan’s neighbours had some sort of national mechanisms taking care of different aspects of disasters such as planning, preparedness, early warning, response and rehabilitation.

However, Pakistan lacks all this except for an arrangement for handling floods.

Balochistan took the lead in passing the resolution in favour of such a dispensation, whereas NWFP and Sindh governments are in advanced stages of getting the resolutions passed by their respective assemblies. However, the administration in the country’s most politically powerful province is still dragging its feet on this issue.

According to sources, certain elements in the Punjab government were equating this disaster management dispensation with the ambulance service being run by the provincial government in Lahore.

“Something which reflects the narrow mindedness of the brains in Punjab government,” an official commented.

The Punjab law minister also confirmed this as he said that Punjab was already pursuing its own plans for a disaster handling body. “A lot had already been done in this regard and legislation drafted for this purpose.”

The NDMA was to function as a structured and strategic agency responsible for policy formulation, information sharing and coordination for the cross-sectoral disaster management programmes.

It was also supposed to act as the secretariat to NDMC, which was to be chaired by prime minister with Senate chairman, National Assembly speaker, key ministers, AJK prime minister, chief ministers, chief executive of Northern Areas and leaders of opposition in both houses of parliament as its members.

The federal government has got the law prepared and vetted by the ministries concerned and is only awaiting endorsement by all the provincial assemblies before it is placed before the National Assembly for enactment.

This plan was originally presented to the government by United Nations Development Programme in 2003, but could not come under active consideration until the October 8 quake.

“The way things are progressing, at least in the Punjab, it looks the provincial bureaucracy is waiting for another national disaster before it gets on with an endorsement for the NDMA from the provincial assembly,” a senior official regretted.

UNDP has made a commitment to meet part of the investment, while the rest of the amount was to be raised by the government from its own resources or foreign donations.

The five-year programme is estimated to cost $16 million, of which $2.5 million have been promised by the UNDP.

Even at the federal level preparations are not in the most enviable state. There are too many actors working for the establishment of this disaster management super-structure, with hardly any coordination between them.

Sources said both the Cabinet Division and Erra had been working on it separately. Additionally, it has been learnt, former Federal Relief Commissioner Maj-Gen Farooq Ahmed Khan has separately been tasked by the prime minister to work on this project.