PAKISTAN: Families displaced by recent floods find refuge in camps run by Jamaat-e-Islami and other Islamist charities

Record ID: 345191

  • Title: PAKISTAN: Families displaced by recent floods find refuge in camps run by Jamaat-e-Islami and other Islamist charities
  • Date: 18th September 2011
  • Summary: MAN MILKING COW FLOOD VICTIMS PRAYING SHABIRA WALKING WITH HER GOATS
  • Embargoed: 3rd October 2011 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Pakistan, Pakistan
  • Country: Pakistan
  • Topics: Disasters,Environment
  • Reuters ID: LVA9AVVTKXQT2FMNIICERNLP0KO0
  • Story Text: As the flood waters rose around her mud house in Ali Nawaz Khoso village in southern Pakistan, Shabira and her six children -- along with dozens of her neighbouring women and children -- were plucked from the flooded village by army soldiers in inflatable boats.
    Most of the men, including Shabira's husband, opted to remain in their village to look after their submerged houses and cattle.
    Volunteers ferried the stricken families in tractors to a camp for flood-displaced people run by the Al Khidmat charity, which is linked to the most influential Islamist party in Pakistan, Jamaat-e-Islami (JI).
    On Friday (September 16), Shabira sat inside her tent feeding her six children.
    "We have come here to escape from the floods. Our entire village was destroyed. We have nothing left. Cattle were killed; houses collapsed," she said.
    Another woman from the same village, Haseena, who had escaped with her six children and ailing father-in-law said:
    "We barely escaped from drowning and came here. Our houses fell, but we managed to escape. We arrived here empty-handed."
    The latest floods, triggered by monsoon rains, have killed more than 230 people, destroyed or damaged 1.2 million houses and flooded 4.5 million acres (1.8 million hectares) since late last month, officials and Western aid groups say.
    More than 300,000 people have been moved to shelters. Some 800,000 families hit by last year's floods are still homeless. Aid groups have warned of a growing risk of fatal diseases.
    A large number of flood victims are turning to relief camps run by Islamist organisations.
    JI's Al Khidmat charity is not believed to have ties with the Taliban or other banned groups. Nevertheless, its relatively efficient relief efforts in last year's floods and other natural disasters has helped discredit the government.
    Organisers at the camp were on Friday tending to flood victims while the party's flag perched on top of the rows of white tents.
    "There are around 950 people in our camp here. Their food is being arranged by Al Khidmat Foundation. Apart from the rations, the Foundation has also made arrangements for tents and medicines. Doctors from Al Khidmat are also coming regularly," said Abdul Kareem Buledi, an organiser at the camp.
    Flood victims said they had to drink rain water and wash clothes in it.
    Like last year, there is widespread frustration with the government's inability to cope with the situation.
    "Our children have fallen ill. We are drinking rain water. We have received neither food, nor medicines, nor tents from the government," Shabira said.
    Analysts say the government risks losing credibility if Islamist charities prove more helpful than the state.
    Pakistani Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani has cancelled a visit to the United States to attend the U.N. General Assembly session to direct relief efforts as floods devastate southern Pakistan, his office said on Friday. But Gilani's decision to cancel his trip provided little comfort to distressed flood victims.
    President Asif Ali Zardari was widely criticised for trips to Britain and France last year when Pakistan was battling floods that killed about 2,000 people and made 11 million homeless.
    This year the government again stands accused of moving too slowly.
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