Aoun Sahi

English | اردو From political parties and the government to the army and Islamist groups, everyone has tried to score political points on tragedy. I visited Punjab’s Rajanpur and Dera Ghazi Khan districts with Rana Farooq, the Federal Minister for Climate Change, and his official flood relief delegation this September. Both districts were badly hit by flash floods in the first week of September, resulting in heavy losses of both lives and property. Thousands of people were displaced from their homes. When I arrived, the federal and provincial governments had set up separate relief camps for flood victims—and both were carrying huge posters of the political parties in power The provincial relief camps carried huge posters of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leadership—Nawaz Sharif and Shahbaz Sharif. And the federal government’s camp was covered with Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) flags and huge hoardings with pictures of its leadership. This major rivalry played out on the ground. Local leaders from both parties were trying to get the maximum number of tents, so they could distribute them in their area of influence. Around the time of my visit, the provincial government’s relief efforts was put on halt for more than two days, after a […]