Assistant commissioner of Pakistan was arranged a sudden raid operation about the information of Flood relief scams in which he claims that the Patwari Mazhar Abbas of Barama Gali Circle has been involved in fraudulent and scam entries. Undre the corruption charges Abbas and Urban Officer M. Shehryar was immediately suspended too from their positions.
This action taken by the government only shows that any fraud or scam related to the natural disaster relief would not be acceptable and being tolerated. Now after all the action from government and suspension clearly has made main lines on news but still every flood victim and every expert has a same question that is this can make any changes on the ground?
In the history of Pakistan, there are many scam and scandals has been found in corruption packages of disaster relief programs etc., also including the ghost beneficiaries, political selection and non true declaration about stolen resources from real victims like 2005 EQ and floods disaster of 2010. Transparency international index Pakistan is among the lowest in terms of corruption ranking; However during the natural disaster, there is an high risk of scam as money and aid being pumped into by the thousands or millions to help out in this time of need.
This can set off a dangerous chain reaction as confidence in government actions, assistance or support stalls and innocent victims suffer needlessly. And in a crisis when getting relief package out quickly and fairly is as vital and important as the aid material itself, transparency is every single bit as valuable and important as the assistance itself.
Pakistan is among the top 10 countries most affected by climate change and natural disasters. Scientists have long warned published and announces that warmer temperatures and more erratic monsoons will make the flooding worse. They stood and published as a graphic warning all over the social media: Floods in 2022, which has been affected 33 million people during that year. The calamity change that has befallen us earlier this year highlights the urgency for better climate adaptation, enhanced flood protection and healthier urban development in the most areas.
As per the nature experts and biologists, some major reasons of such deadliest flood are: poor maintenances of the drainage system due to sprawls and over deforestation in lands or forest. With no adequate trees in the land it can’t able to resist the flow of water and natural capacity of Land will be lost and look at this site were unable to hold it. If you clear all the land for buildings, and fill or overload wetlands then it can make an intense rain a disaster. We continue to read these stories and it just shows that the government perhaps has taken a good step for a better beginning by suspending patwari but even by other of course we can not remove all such bad doers in one go. They have to make major decisions for these changes;
For the avoidance of all forms of ghost beneficiaries, digital surveillance can be employed for victims’ equitable relief package allocation.
Involvement of local community in monitoring the allocation of aid so that help will reach to those who are in need.
Carrying out independent audits of the disaster fund in order to check diversion.
Building of flood-resistant infrastructure to prevent susceptibility from other future natural disasters.
The example of countries such as Bangladesh, where digital data registry resulted in considerable decrease in fraud for disaster response, presents a successful model that Pakistan would also benefit from such models.
Mainly and importantly, they want to be able to believe that this government will protect them in the upcoming future disasters and problems not just betraying them at that point. So, by giving such promises to the public like they will hold an accountable for such persons and politicians will not be enough who has lost everything during the disaster. They only need and want timely, quickly help and aid, helpful resources for getting their lives back to normal routines and fair compensation and distribution among all of them. They only want and demand for their re-build of their homes, re-ploughing their fields for food coverage, and mainly the loss of their animals, moreover among other things should be made up too.
The trending topic about Chiniot scandal is mainly the topic and matter of education and discouragement towards the disaster relief programs. it also gives call-to-action for overlooking the corruption at the time of crisis and disasters and to rebuild the trust as well as repairs their distribution of relief materials between the victims. The reliever must be transparent accountable and community focused so there will be zero chances of any dishonesty during the time.
Now the Pakistan has been standing at the intersection in which it can sit back side and let the person or graft continue to ruin the aid program aims and benefits, or this country’s government can reform its position and can grow, protect their unprotected and unsafe citizens from the crisis. Whereas it may be a small step towards the suspension but still there are hopes and potential towards updating their real system for arriving with more sustainable and equitable ideas for disasters relief. In the meantime, crisis victims will remain on edge and being anxious about the future. Their serious wariness is only based on understanding that the actual justice and decisions will not shown by just words only but also from assistance and support which is transparent, fairly, timely and quickly delivered.
