QUAID-I-AZAM Mohammad Ali Jinnah had proudly said that there is no power on Earth that can undo Pakistan. Little did he know what lay ahead in the decades past his death. Anatol Lieven, in his book, Pakistan: A Hard Country, has argued that Pakistan is besieged by multifarious challenges; and climate change alone is lethal enough to undo it.

Pakistan has always been in the grip of climate-induced natural disasters and abnormal weather patterns, but the magnitude of the ongoing flash floods is unprecedented. Cities and villages are submerged, and agriculture has taken a hit, thereby adding to the food crisis. Infrastructure and communication links have been destroyed. Loss of life, property and livelihoods is increasing by the day. Dislocation, displacement and disease outbreak are the realities of Pakistan for the last couple of months.

We have never taken climate change seriously. For the longest time, government and society were oblivious to the phenomenon called climate change. Even when it became the buzzword around the world, it was deemed fiction rather than a fact at our end. When it started hitting us hard and climate change became undeniable, we called it divine punishment.

Then, as human involvement was highlighted across the world, we found solace in passing the buck to foreign countries on the pretext that our share in global emissions is less than one per cent. As a matter of fact, nature might be showering more rain than usual, but it has never asked us not to prepare for it or not to cope with it.

Also, we have had enough of escapism. It is time we changed our discourse from naming ourselves among the most climate-vulnerable countries to among the least prepared countries. Though the country is crying for help, unsurprisingly, the response of the government, state institutions, departments concerned and the general officialdom remains as lacklustre as it has ever been.

Initially, not many in government or even in the media bat an eyelid as they were too preoccupied with highlighting issues related to the murky world of politics. Later, what ensued was anything but satisfactory. The high and mighty are more than happy dropping food packages from helicopters in certain areas of their choice. The federal minister concerned is doing nothing beyond citing statistics on the losses incurred every now and then. In Balochistan, the provincial government has all but disappeared, while local governments have remained largely dysfunctional.

Above all, the opposition is on a rampage, holding rallies, while its legislators have not even bothered to visit their constituencies. The futile war of words has not subsided one bit.

The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) kept up its tradition of leaving things to chance. No concrete plans were devised to safely evacuate victims and relocate them. The international non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are not allowed to freely exercise their relief plans, let alone expecting assistance.

And there is no assurance that such tragedy will not befall us in the future. The Ministry of Climate Change resembles a top-heavy bureaucracy. The ones at the helm are more focussed on telling everyone how much they know about the phenomenon without actually doing anything concrete on the ground. Their self-serving interests override those for whom the ministry was created.

The Meteorological Department failed to issue timely warnings, and actual happenings are clearly flying in the face of its projections. The economy-oriented departments, chiefly the Ministry of Finance and the Economic Coordination Committee, are busy courting international donors whose so-called aid has strings attached to it.

Hence, it might provide some relief in the short term, but in the long term, further misery awaits. Even without the recent floods, the nation was already on the brink of an economic collapse. According to the United Nations World Food Programme, 43 per cent of Pakistan’s population faced food insecurity even before the floods which only aggravated the matter.

What we are seeing is just the tip of the iceberg. Real losses will show up once the waters recede. Even in such stressful times when rehabilitation is the need of the hour, politics is overshadowing economics, and profiteers are finding ways to make some quick bucks.

Efforts to overcome the crises are not comforting. Much of the task revolves around seeking donations and aid, and, though they are pouring in, doubts regarding their use and sustainability are aplenty.

Hopefully, saner approach will prevail. The sanest of them all would be to at least stop blaming others for our misery. Acknowledging that we made mistakes is the first step towards not repeating the mistakes again. Let us focus on that for our own sake.

Ashraf Ahmed Shah
Hyderabad

Published in Dawn, September 20th, 2022