Opinion - News Analysis   

Concern in the earthquake zone

B. Muralidhar Reddy

A report on the involvement ofjihadigroups in earthquake relief and reconstruction in Pakistan raises questions about the Musharraf Government's policies.

IT IS more than five months since the October 8 earthquake killed 88,000 people and injured about a lakh in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) and parts of the North West Frontier Province but the reverberations continue. The physical damage is only one dimension of the story. The policies of the Musharraf regime in handling relief and reconstruction threaten greater harm.

The latest report of the International Crisis Group (ICG), a think tank that studies the ground situation in conflict zones, raises disturbing questions. After extensive fieldwork, the Group is convinced that if the Pakistan establishment does not immediately stop the active involvement of the jihadi groups in the quake-affected zone, the threats to domestic and regional security will increase.

As many as 17 groups that have either been banned by the Musharraf Government or placed on its terrorism watch-list are involved in the relief activities. Their continued involvement in the quake-affected areas is bound to lead to a further radicalised PoK and Frontier.

The question is why has the government allowed such a free run to the jihadi groups? With the Afghan experience still fresh in its mind, the Pakistan Government cannot be oblivious to the pitfalls of doing business with militant outfits irrespective of the cause.

As per the ICG report, the Government seemed to have preferred the jihadi and religious outfits to relatively apolitical and secular organisations in the quake-hit areas. "With the military controlling the distribution channels of international relief goods, preferential access gave both Islamist parties and banned jihadi groups opportunities to win local support in the immediate aftermath and weeks following the earthquake," the report says.

The international community, which joined the relief effort in a big way, was left with little option but to forge links with the jihadis. According to the ICG, some U.N. agencies and international humanitarian organisations through their close cooperation with the Pakistani military, have established, by default, a working relationship with Islamist organisations, including in some instances banned groups.

The U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan, Ryan C. Crocker, did make an issue of the involvement of jihadi outfits in the quake-relief and asked the Pakistan Government to ensure their withdrawal from the ground. But far from acceding to the request, the Government has vehemently defended them. President Pervez Musharraf praised the Jamaat-ud-Dawa for its exemplary work. The only assurance he was willing to give was that the Government would not allow any of the outfits on the ground to indulge in any political work.

But in reality there appears to be little or no check on what is happening on the ground. The ICG report notes: "These jihadi groups openly operate relief camps, distribute relief goods and advertise their presence through banners and billboards at their camps and along the main streets of earthquake-affected cities."

The military seems to be comfortable with the religious organisations. The bureaucracy is considered incompetent and civil society not trusted.

Within days of the earthquake, Gen. Musharraf constituted the Earthquake Relief Commission and the Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority (ERRA). Both were placed under serving military officers.

Only a few days before the visit of U.S. President George W. Bush was the top post in the ERRA entrusted to a civilian. "The Pakistan government's ill-planned and poorly executed emergency response to the October 2005 earthquake highlighted the inadequacies of authoritarian rule. As the government now embarks on three to four years of reconstruction and rehabilitation, the absence of civilian oversight and inadequate accountability and transparency could seriously undermine the process," says the ICG report.

It also makes a telling point on how Pakistan lost a grand opportunity to build trust and further the peace process with India. "Natural disasters sometimes create the political conditions for peacemaking. While the October earthquake led to some minor confidence-building measures, it did not dissipate India and Pakistan's mutual mistrust. This was to be expected since banned jihadi groups such as the Lashkar-e-Taiba and the Jaish-e-Mohammed are operating under new names or through front organisations in relief efforts, thus providing ample evidence that their infrastructure remains intact. To rebuild trust, the Pakistan government must disband the networks of these and all other banned organisations," it says.

Will the Musharraf regime heed the counsel or dismiss the report as yet another inspired work to malign Pakistan and its military?

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