Pakistan is passing through trying times after the unprecedented floods which claimed more than 1,600 lives and devastated large parts of the country, causing disruption of normal life on a very massive scale. It is estimated that more than two crore people are badly affected in the most widespread floods after 1929. About 35 lakh children also are at grave risk of catching life-endangering diseases. The UN Secretary General Ban-ki Moon visited the country and appealed for worldwide help for relief and rehabilitation of the flood-affected population.
India, keeping in view the demands of good neighbourliness, offered help worth `25 crore. For about a week the Pak government was hesitating to accept the grant, but after prodding by US finally accepted it. It should be appreciated that the attitude of our Prime Minister in the wake of Pak hesitation has been very gentlemanly. Instead of any adverse reaction, he enhanced the offered amount.
Pakistan and its civil society, in this critical hour, must do a lot of heart searching. It was very shameful that President Zardari, instead of rushing to console the flood victims, chose to go on a foreign trip to attend PPP functions in London, in which he planned the crowning of his son Bilawal as his successor. Then he travelled along with his family to Paris to spend some good time in his suburban palace. This shows the insensitivity and callousness of the people at the helm of affairs in that country.
Another painful factor in Pakistan is the ever deteriorating law and order situation. During the last eight months about 160 important persons have been made the victims of targeted killings. Sunnis and Shias, this party and that party, this sect and that sect are at each other’s necks, tarnishing the name of Islam in whose name the country was created.
The month of August also saw the targeted killing of a member of National Assembly Raza Haider and then a hell was let loose in Karachi in which 80 people lost their lives. How long this circle of murder and mayhem? Is there no responsible government and civil society in Pakistan? Killing of innocents is the most heinous crime which is being continuously committed in Pakistan with impunity. The first priority in the country is restoration of respect for Islam and rule of law. The judicial system and human rights organisations also have a special responsibility in this regard.
Pakistan has come to this sorry state because of the neglect of rule of law by the succeeding governments when they were thinking in partisan terms of we and they instead of punishing the guilty. Violence leads to more violence and then it gives rise to a vicious circle of unending violence. Once you allow resort to violence whether inside your country or export it to other countries, you open the floodgates of your own destruction. Virtually Pakistan is faced with the gravest existential crisis which it has brought upon itself through its own hands. If urgent steps are not taken to stop this trend, the very existence of Pakistan would be in danger.