Gilani's gratuitous remarks

Source: The News

Date: September 01, 2010

Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani has charged that international NGOs consume about 80 per cent of their funds for flood-relief work in Pakistan on their administrative costs. In other words, only 20 per cent of the funds are spent on the relief and rehabilitation of the flood victims.
His comments in Multan on Sunday are a sweeping repudiation of all NGOs, international or national, and regardless of which particular category of work they carry out. The comments are inappropriate, ill-timed and untrue, even though they were probably not intended to convey an incorrect impression. He normally makes balanced, restrained comments and has a constructive, conciliatory approach. But what he said has disappointed and distressed many people, including this writer.

Perhaps the following elements will help in clarifying the matter and put things in their proper context.

The prime minister specifically referred to "international NGOs" which have recently arrived in Pakistan to work in the post-flood situation. But possibly his comment is also meant to refer to international NGOs whose work is long-established in Pakistan. For example, Oxfam, Save the Children, ActionAid, Plan International and Care.

He said that a conditionality attached to the funds being given by overseas donors to the United Nations for flood relief is that the UN channel 80 per cent of the funds through international NGOs. The "80 per cent" in this context is, thus, an entirely different dimension from the reference to the "80 per cent being used up for their own administrative expenses," as the prime minister has stated.

For more details please visit website: http://thenews.com.pk/01-09-2010/ethenews/e-2270.htm

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16 million displaced by floods, says UNHCR

Source: Dawn

Date: 01 Sep, 2010

QUETTA, Aug 31: The country director of United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has said that floods and torrential rains had affected over 20 million people and displaced 16 million Pakistanis.

Addressing a press conference at the UNHCR office here on Tuesday, Mengesha Kebede said the flood-affected area was equal to the size of Italy.
He said that UNHCR had been in Balochistan since the Afghan war and the international community had requested the organisation to launch relief activities and help flood survivors. Mr Kebede said that over 500,000 people had been displaced by the floods in Balochistan and a similar number had crossed over into the province from Sindh.

 “We will provide shelter to one million people in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan,” he said, adding that UNHCR had provided 80,000 jerrycans of water to the affected people. He, however, said that the scale of disaster was so high that UNHCR alone could not cope with it.

Mr Kebede said that the UN had appealed for $120 million, but it had so far received 40 per cent of the amount. He said that Pakistan was not a weak country and it had the capability of coping with such kinds of humanitarian crisis.

View the link http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/the-newspaper/national/16-million-displaced-by-floods,-says-unhcr-190

Floods devastation

Source: The News

Date: August 31, 2010

ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has forwarded three different proposals to the government for generating additional revenue of Rs 130 billion, including imposing 10 percent flood surcharge on profits of 7,000 corporate sector companies having earned Rs 642 billion profit in last financial year.

Pakistan’s tax authorities have proposed to impose certain percentage of tax on profits of around 7,000 corporate sector companies and the collected amount should be utilised for reconstruction work in flood-affected areas.

The corporate sector companies can be convinced to utilise the money by themselves for reconstruction work of specific areas by giving them recognition. “We think that no one will oppose any such proposal when he knows that the money is being utilised to provide relief to the flood-

affected people,” said the official.

The FBR has offered two more proposals: to impose 5-10 percent surcharge on tax liabilities of those who earned more than Rs 300,000 per

annum. The taxable ceiling of Rs 300,000 is already exempted from the tax.

For more details: http://thenews.com.pk/31-08-2010/ethenews/t-271.htm

 

249 fell victim to targeted killings in seven months

Source: Dawn
Date:30 Aug, 2010

KARACHI: As many as 249 people fell victim to targeted killings during the period from Jan 1 to Aug 6 in different parts of the city, police department statistics show.

People from a wide cross section of society have been targeted in the shootings which show that different forces are pursuing their deadly agendas.

During the period of over six months, people were targeted for their political affiliations, sectarian beliefs or for the language they speak. There were also cases when people were killed in targeted attacks but their political or sectarian affiliation was not clear.

As armed men practically ruled the streets of the city during the specified dates killing people freely, the law-enforcement agencies remained silent spectators while the government remained paralysed and numbed.

View the Link: http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/the-newspaper/local/249-fell-victim-to-targeted-killings-in-seven-months-080

Side Effect

Source: The News

Date: August 27, 2010

Our current set of rulers. Feudal lords and ladies they are. If not feudal, they are tribal chieftains or, scarily, big businessmen, the wannabe feudal in Pakistan's context, with large estates and aspirations to be counted among the landed elite. The president, the prime minister, the speaker of the National Assembly, the foreign minister, the interior minister, the four chief ministers, a large number of federal and provincial ministers, all fall in the same category.
Those who play opposition these days are no different. And, interestingly, with the exception of the PML-Q every significant party is a part of some federal or provincial government setup. Many of these politicians have used their office to increase their own and their cronies' assets, profits and political power. And they continue to do that since the time of Liaquat Ali Khan, Khaliquzzaman, Gurmani, Daultana, Mamdot, Shaukat Hayat, Chaudhry Mohammed Ali and Ghulam Mohammed.
Now look at the other set of rulers we had for nearly 35 years during the six decades of our political history. The self-proclaimed messiahs, the patriotic generals, who claimed to be able to fix everything that was dysfunctional, corrupt and ineffective, be it the economy, the judicial system, the cricket board, or the personal morality and Islamic practices of the irreverent citizens of the state.
To start with, generals get a larger share from the national exchequer even officially. The unscrupulous ones mint money through contracts, commissions, establishing businesses or appropriating senior civilian jobs offered by the state. Besides, the dividends for individuals from businesses run by the military as an institution cannot be overlooked. In addition to urban real estate, many of these senior military men are awarded fertile chunks of cultivable land across Pakistan.

View the link: http://www.thenews.com.pk/27-08-2010/opinion/1426.htm

 

 

 

Half a million more asked to evacuate in sindh

Source: The News

Date: August 27, 2010

HYDERABAD: Authorities ordered nearly half-a-million people to evacuate nearby towns on Thursday as rising floods threatened further havoc in Sindh. In a late night development, authorities ordered all residents of Thatta city to evacuate to safer places as water levels rose. Villagers fled trailing north in vans laden with furniture or crowded into buses, or in carts pulled by oxen. Some people were on foot, leading their livestock.

Water lined the road from Hyderabad to Thatta town, as workers frantically used bulldozers to dig embankments only just higher than the flooding, and where people camped out under open skies or in makeshift tents.

A senior administration official warned that fresh floods threatened three towns. A breach into the MS Thatta embankment has inundated many villages and the floodwater is now moving towards Mirpur Bhattero, Sujawal and Daro.

Reports said that a 20-foot wide breach developed at the MS Thatta embankment, which widened to 120 feet within hours due to the inefficiency of irrigation officials.

“We have warned people of Sujawal, Mirpur Bhattero and DaroÖan approximate population of 400,0000. to leave for safer places in view of possible flooding there,” Hadi Bakhsh Kalhoro, the senior official in Thatta district, said.

DCO Thatta district Manzoor Sheikh said that some 100,000 people were on the move for safety on Thursday.Reports said that if the developed breach could not be plugged, then there were possibilities that Thatta and Jhirk city would be completely inundated.

Also, Shahdadkot city was once again declared as Red Zone and a warning issued to citizens to vacate the city within 12 hours. The breaches in the Kirthar Canal caused flooding in Shahdadkot and its adjacent areas and floodwater was now moving towards Ratodero.

Link: http://thenews.com.pk/27-08-2010/ethenews/t-174.htm

 

 

Calamity-hit status only for villages

Source: Dawn

Date: 27 Aug, 2010

PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkwa government has decided to declare villages badly affected by the flash floods as calamity-hit area rather than an entire district.

A senior official told Dawn on Thursday that “the government has decided to extend the facility only to those areas where it is needed”.

According to the official the provincial Revenue and Estate Department has been directed to furnish details of the damaged public and private

properties on the basis of revenue record maintained for each village.

“Once the details are furnished, the government will notify the areas as calamity-hit, a status which can offer waver of certain local taxes as a

relief to the flood affected households,” said the official.

Data collected by the revenue staff would also be used to compensate affected people for the damage caused to their houses by the floods, he said.

Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) had categorised the entire province into three catego-ries keeping in view the magnitude of

damages the floods had caused in the districts.

Severely affected districts included Charsadda, Dera Ismail Khan, Dir Lower, Dir Upper, Nowshera, Peshawar, Shangla, Swat, Tank and Kohistan.

Similarly, the medium affected districts consist of Bannu, Battagram, Chitral, Karak, Kohat, Lakki, Malakand, Mansehra and Swabi. Bunair,

Hangu, Haripur, Mardan and Abbottabad had been included in the least affected category.

For more details: http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/the-newspaper/national/calamityhit-status-only-for-villages-780