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WHEN millions of families have been affected in the largest humanitarian crisis to hit in the country's history, some problems in getting aid and relief to the victims is perhaps to be expected.
But there is a depressing familiarity to the litany of complaints surrounding the Watan Card scheme launched by the government in September to transfer an initial Rs20,000 to flood-affected families with the promise of Rs80,000 more at a later date.
Amazingly, Balochistan, the economically and socially most backward province that was also hit hard by the floods, has yet to see the scheme kick off because funding commitments by the federal government have not been met.
In addition, flood affectees in the province in the districts of Jafarabad and Nasirabad may be denied benefits under the scheme altogether because few among the population there have Computerised National Identity Cards, a prerequisite for the Watan Card.
In other provinces, complaints about political pressure to include undeserving families and exclude deserving ones are rife. Then there's the extortion local officials are indulging in, while unscrupulous elements are busy in some areas buying the cards at knockdown prices from illiterate and ill-informed flood affectees who do not properly understand the worth and purpose of the card.
To be sure, the vast scale of the operations and the many departments and officials involved means many administrative hurdles and some margin of error are inevitable. There are also political realities in a patronage-based system which need to be taken into account.
But an entire province deprived of cash grants two months after the launch of the Watan Card scheme? Or political bickering between coalition allies in the Punjab government limiting the disbursals to two-thirds of the total affected families? Surely that ought to be unacceptable, whatever the political climate or other concerns, given the unprecedented nature of the crisis.
And what about the complaints about inactive cards or cards which are rejected by ATM machines? Since 2005, Pakistan has dealt with a number of humanitarian crises the October 2005 earthquake, multiple militancy-related IDP crises and the floods in Balochistan in 2007.
Various government agencies, with Nadra in the lead, have been involved in the disbursement of aid through electronic means. Surely technical glitches and administrative errors ought to have been minimised by now.
Yes, a number of flood victims have indeed received relatively decent care and attention. But if you happen to be a victim who has fallen through the cracks in the system, it matters little that others have received aid. All are equal citizens of Pakistan and everyone should be treated as such.
