President Asif Ali Zardari returned home yesterday from foreign visits to a chorus of criticism over his government’s response to the country’s worst flooding in 80 years.
The floods, triggered by unusually heavy monsoon rain over the upper Indus river basin that started nearly two weeks ago, have ploughed a swathe of destruction more than 1,000km (600 miles) long from northern Pakistan to the south, killing more than 1,600 people.
The weather cleared in some areas allowing helicopters, including US aircraft, to resume flights to help more than 13 million people – about 8 per cent of the population – whose lives have been disrupted by the floods, including two million homeless.
Mr Zardari, the widower of assassinated former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, whose rule has been mired in controversy, enraged his critics by going ahead with visits to meet leaders in Britain and France as the catastrophe was unfolding.
The military has taken the lead in relief efforts, while the government is under fire for a perceived sluggish response. While the crisis has reinforced the faith Pakistanis have in the ability of their military, analysts say the armed forces would not try to take over the country, as they have vowed to stay out of politics and are busy fighting militants.
“The president has returned and he is in Karachi. He will come to Islamabad,” said Mr Zardari’s spokesman, Farhatullah Babar.
A government official said Mr Zardari was expected to visit flood-hit areas within days, but for many Pakistanis, his trip is too little, too late. “All that I can say about Zardari is that our houses are collapsing and his government is not even bothered,” said Daraz Gul, a market salesman in the town of Nowshera in the northwest. “A government is supposed to be like a parent. If a parent leaves his children in trouble and goes on jaunts abroad, it is scandalous.” Dozens of protesters in the southern town of Sukkur in Sindh accused politicians of ignoring flood victims. “They want to save their own lands and factories. They don’t care if Sukkur is drowned,” said cloth merchant Salahuddin Ahmed.
Mr Zardari has been a ceremonial president since parliament adopted constitutional changes stripping him of his powers this year and the government, led by his party, said it was dealing with the floods and the issue should not be politicised.
The UN secretary-general’s special envoy for assistance to Pakistan, Jean-Maurice Ripert, said the disaster was the biggest the country had ever faced.
“We know that the area affected and the scale of the disaster are such that hundreds of millions of dollars will be needed to address urgent humanitarian needs and billions of dollars will be required for rehabilitation and reconstruction of infrastructure and livelihoods,” he told a news conference.
Flooding has also hit India, killing 156 people in the Himalayan region of Ladakh.