Pakistani flooding inflames divisions
By Karin Brulliard
Saturday, September 11, 2010 IN KARACHI, PAKISTAN Even in the best of times, Pakistan is a tenuous federation riven by regional, ethnic, sectarian and class rivalries. These are not the best of times. The South Asian nation is struggling to cope with cataclysmic floods that inundated every province, destroying infrastructure and leaving millions homeless. But instead of forging unity, the disaster seems to have deepened age-old fissures in ways that some analysts, aid workers and politicians warn are hobbling relief efforts and could incite strife over what is bound to be a prolonged recovery period. Pakistan’s four provinces, which have long battled one another for resources and influence, are engaging in cutthroat battles for shares of flood aid money. Well-connected landowners have been accused of diverting floodwaters to save their own properties while drowning those of the poor. Reports abound of relief denied to minorities and political opponents, while ethnic violence has flared as flood refugees stream into the tinderbox city of Karachi. Islamist militants, meanwhile, appear to have launched a new wave of violence after weeks of relative silence. More than 110 people have been killed this month in bombings targeting minority sects and police. … There are separatist movements in three of four provinces, all of which harbor a resentment for Punjab, the wealthiest, most populous and influential province. Though Punjab was hit hard by flooding, that anger still courses. Other regions have been outraged by Punjabi officials’ assertion – backed by the prime minister – that much damage could have been averted had other provinces allowed construction of a controversial major dam that non-Punjabi leaders assert would harm their provinces by displacing residents and depriving them of water. “Instead of helping us, the typical Punjabi-minded politicians opened this new Pandora’s box,” said Arbab Mujeeb Khan, a leader of the ruling Pashtun nationalist party in the northwest’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. Many of the complaints carry more sinister, and plausible, allegations of wrongdoing. In the southwest province of Baluchistan, where separatists are waging a low-level insurgency, politicians say flood refugees have been severely neglected. Mengesha Kebede, a United Nations official, told reporters last week that relief camps in the province were the most “disgusting” he had ever seen and warned that displaced people might soon migrate west to Iran for help. Baluch leaders and politicians have accused landlords in neighboring Sindh – including the federal sports minister – of pressuring irrigation officials to breach dikes so that waters surged away from their lands and swamped Baluch villages. The sports minister has denied the allegation. … Last month in Karachi, police opened fire on refugees who moved into 450 vacant apartments with the backing of a Sindhi nationalist party. Two were killed. Many Karachi observers fear more such outbreaks will follow if the refugees get too settled. …
