Anybody who had been to the quake affected areas of Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Jammu and Kashmir aftermath the October 2005 earthquake, in which more than 80,000 people were killed and more than 200,000 injured, would have witnessed the anger of the victims of the earthquake against the tardy relief and rehabilitation work. Complaints of inadequate relief and corruption by the authorities was a rampant cry heard in various parts devastated by the calamity.

These protests received scant mention in the western media. The media, instead, focused on the activities of the men from the “extremist” organizations like Jamaat-ul-Dawa and Al-Rashid, who were also in the forefront of the relief work. The men of Jamaat-ul-Dawa and Al-Rashid, sourced from the Punjab based extremist groups namely Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad respectively, reached out to the remote corners of the earthquake and consequently filled the vacuum created by the absence of the government machinery.

Like in the past, there are wide-spread fears in the western media that the extremist organizations might exploit the situation which has developed due to floods. Even the Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari has joined the chorus. The President reportedly stated Pakistani Taliban may kidnap children dislocated by the flooding and put them in terrorist training camps."I always see such organisations and such people [extremists] taking advantage of situations like this. [We must] try to be the buffer between them taking the children, keeping them in the orphanages, and trying to create them into robots,” the Pakistani President remarked, while he urged the international community to enhance funding in its hour of need. The US Senator John Kerry after visiting Pakistan also directly linked the need to help Pakistan with the security concerns of the country and also the US.

Finally, the western world responded to the calamity after the plea of several others including the UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon. A special meet of the General Assembly on this issue resulted in the commitment of $490 million, while another $325 million have been pledged by governments around the world, leading multinationals and charities. As per the reports, over half of the donations came just from three donors — European Union ($180 million), the US ($150 million) and UK ($100 million).

It will be bit innocuous to suppose that dispensation of monetary relief from the west will automatically result in qualitative deliverance of services to the affected areas. The interest of the displaced millions of Pakistani masses will be better served if the socio-economic peculiarities of the affected region as well as the institutional structure is taken into account, and accordingly, the type of humanitarian and development assistance required is planned.

Some of the facts about the region are worth reiteration as relief pours in from various quarters. The socio-economic indicators such as literacy rate, school enrollment rate, under-5 mortality rate of the affected areas of southern Punjab are abysmal as compared to central Punjab, easily the most prosperous part of Pakistan. The poverty in some parts of southern Punjab is as high as 55%. The condition of women in the region is even worse. The July 2010 study of the International Fund for Agricultural Development Limited on southern Punjab mentions that women of the areas are considerably more vulnerable to poverty than men, resulting in increasing feminisation of poverty. The report adds that an estimated 2.6 million women and girls are employed as cotton pickers on the cotton farms during the harvesting season between September and December.  The land holding in Pakistan is skewed. The feudal lords and their allies constitute only five per cent of Pakistani agricultural households, yet they own 64 per cent of the farmland. This has significant consequences for the affected landless labourers, who may be deprived of monetary compensation.

In addition to the above facts, the present institutional structure of the Pakistani polity is a factor in creating a mismatch between the allocated funds and the actual quality of delivery of services at the grassroots. Notwithstanding, the unprecedented nature of the floods, the flood management response demonstrates a lack of synergy and coordination between the provincial capital at Lahore, the capital of Punjab province of Pakistan, and the elected institutions of local governance in the affected areas. The elected local bodies were empowered under the rule of General Musharraf. In spite of the presence of several early warning mechanisms at the provincial as well as federal level, the district authorities were not prepared to cope up with the floods.Even the Pakistan-India Indus Water Treaty has a provision of early warning mechanism between the two countries particularly during the monsoons.

Accountability is another important factor.In his 1990’s classic book – Everybody Loves a Good Drought – P. Sainath, renowned development journalist of South Asia, had brilliantly illustrated through his field work in five poorest states of India that how a drought like situation becomes an opportunity for bureaucracy to fleece public money. The situation in Pakistan may be no different. The reconstruction and rehabilitation is estimated to take many years due to the colossal nature of the natural and humanitarian calamity. However, for making an effective international contribution a non-financial package is also necessary. This includes technical assistance and sharing best practices of the development sector from areas of similar socio-economic background. Disaster also brings opportunity and courage to break free from the shackles that have held back progress and empowerment of millions.

Luv Puri is Fulbright scholarship alumni who writes on South Asian issues.

The views expressed by this blogger and in the following reader comments do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the Dawn Media Group.