United States of Islam

by: Sheikh Taimur Nawaz

The whole nation is in mourning as over 150 precious lives were lost in the tragic air crash on Margalla Hills in Islamabad. The plane was merely eight kilometres away from its final destination. The rescue operation, as usual, happened without much management though all the organisations, including the armed forces, took part in recovering the dead bodies in a difficult terrain. We all should acknowledge the good work by our rescuers. However, the National Disaster Management Authority, which has a clear mandate in times of national disasters, was missing all the way. The NDMA is the leading agency at the federal level and it is the executive arm of the National Disaster Management Commission (NDMC), which has been established under the chairmanship of the prime minister as the apex policy-making body in the field of disaster management. This authority should have played a pivotal role in the rescue efforts but the usual chaos and mismanagement were seen at the incident site with literally common men taking part in the operation. In our part of the world, we have a number of these so-called authorities and commissions with fancy vision and mission statements but they usually falter in testing times.

The vision statement of the NDMA reads and I quote: “To achieve sustainable social, economic and environmental development in Pakistan through reducing risks and vulnerabilities, particularly those of the poor and marginalised groups, and by effectively responding to and recovering from all types of disaster events.” The mission statement of the NDMA reads and I quote: “To manage complete spectrum of disasters by adopting a disaster risk reduction perspective in development planning at all levels, and through enhancing institutional capacities for disaster preparedness, response and recovery.” The website of the NDMA is worth reading as it seems to cover a wide spectrum of national disasters but it’s merely lip service in my opinion. I request the honourable prime minister to kindly pay due consideration to such commissions and authorities especially in terms of their effectiveness.