The Islamists and the Great Flood of Pakistan

Pakistan’s floods are now considered to be more damaging than the massive earthquake that devastated its part of Kashmir in 2005, not least because of the inability of the administration to respond quickly to the crisis. Pakistan is not alone in the region ill-prepared to cope with natural disasters. Bigger, richer India is just as unable to either eliminate or limit the destruction that its bountiful rivers unleash each monsoon, and you hear the same chorus of criticism of government apathy. Bangladesh, too, gets more than its share of cyclones and floods each season, and yet successive governments are overwhelmed each time disaster strikes.

But the one difference in Pakistan is that Islamist charities, some believed linked to militant groups, are ready to step into the breach. And that is worrying a lot of people, as the flood waters sweep over Khyber-Pakhtoonkhwa, the province in northwest Pakistan which has been the main battleground in the fight against militants, down to the heartland province of Punjab and into Sindh.

The concerns centre on Jamaat-ud-Dawa, the charity arm of the Lashkar-e-Taiba, the banned Pakistani militant group blamed for the 2008 attacks on Mumbai in which 166 people were killed. The Jamaat, which was banned by the U.N. Security Council last December, is working with Fatah-i-Insani Foundation, which is also suspectedof links to extremists, setting up relief camps and sending medical camps to the flooded northwest. It had also organised medical ambulances for emergency treatment, survivors said.

While foreign and government officials debate the security risks from venturing into the troubled northwest, the Islamists groups have penetrated even remote villages with ease, they said. As our correspondents report, they may not bring huge resources to bear, but they establish a presence in the affected areas, often setting up a canvas awning beside a road, with a banner appealing for donations and table covered with bottles and jars of basic medicine. At one village near the swollen Indus in Punjab province, our reporters saw workers of the Jamaat preparing food in huge pots over a smoky fire while four burqa-clad women sat at a charity medical post.

The New York Times said a brigade of 4,000 volunteers from Islamist groups was on the ground in Nowshera to rebuild homes in villages far too dangerous for foreign aid workers to enter.

High-level meeting at UN to discuss Pakistan’s flood situation

UN seeks record $2bn for Pak flood

The United Nations has launched the largest ever natural disaster appeal by asking global community to contribute over USD two billion to provide aid for flood-affected 14 million people in Pakistan.

The new amount includes the initial August appeal of USD 459 million, which is now 80 per cent funded, but leaves a shortfall of about USD 1.6 billion, according to the UN.

The floods in Pakistan are the worst natural disaster the United Nations has had to deal with in 65 years.

Responding to call for international donations, India has handed over USD 20 million to Ban for the 'Pakistan Emergency Response Plan'.

"The magnitude of the tragedy makes it incumbent on the international community to pool its energy and resources to assist Pakistan in its efforts to rebuild and rehabilitate the devastated energy," Hardeep Singh Puri, India's envoy to the UN, told the General Assembly.

The floods have hit an area of at least 160,000 square kilometres and impacted an estimated 21 million people.

Top diplomats from around the world will meet Sunday evening to discuss the on-going relief efforts for millions of victims of devastating floods in Pakistan. The meeting to be co-chaired by Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon—follows Friday’s launch of United Nations’ upgraded appeal to help the flood-battered country deal with the grave humanitarian situation.

The new appeal was the largest one ever issued by the United Nations.
Previously, the biggest natural disaster appeal was for victims of Haiti’s January earthquake which totaled nearly $1.5 billion.