Professional Documents
Culture Documents
What can be done when a national government fundamentally ignores the knowledge base of its own civil society?
What can be done to combat the problem of the elite capture of public goods by national military and civilian personnel?
Currently, there are over 2,600 [UN] accredited NGOs. These organizations are rarely (if ever) actively involved in relief effort planning or decision-making activities This reflects the low priority many UN agencies and international organizations give to understanding the sociocultural context of the people they are trying to assist We would contend that in the South Asia disaster, the military, together with the international agency-run clusters, were the response and relief operation The Pakistan military, not known for its decision-making transparency or open communication policy, independently made [at times disasterous] decisions...
Esther K. Hicks and Gregory Pappas (WHO), 2006 Coordinating Disaster Relief After the South Asia Earthquake, Society
Tents are now the most important commodity in Kashmir. But they are being used for power and patronage by the military and civilian authorities that control the territory.
Asma Jahangir, 2005 Human Rights Commission of Pakistan United Nations Special Rapporteur
Mostly, [Pakistans NGOs] share many weaknesses with the state they so righteously deplore: dependency on foreign assistance; lavish expenditure on overheads; lack of transparency; fixed notions aboutdevelopment [But] the top-down approach has failed to deliver goods Our state is highly overcentralized. Local government bears major responsibilities but, with few exceptions, has no administrative, financial and technical capability... Unless we accept communities as equal partners in the process of development and start a participatory mode of governance, our problems will not go away [A] new class of young activists [including local government representatives] is emerging... It is vital that professionals follow suit and use the political and social space available to develop home grown solutions.
Tasneem Ahmed Siddiqui, 2006 Senior civil servant and head of the Squatters Improvement Authority The Dynamics of Bureaucratic Rule in Pakistan, in Rudolph, Lloyd I. and Jacobsen, John Kurt (eds), Experiencing the State, pp 177-80
Inability to absorb lessons from other disasters Lack of standardized monitoring and evaluation Weakness of human resource management Inability to constructively engage civil society actors (Hicks and Pappas, 2006)
Graft by elite members of the militarysuch as the hoarding of lifesaving tents for purposes of political patronage; Decisions to depute mobile hospitals and other facilities to relatively well-off communities of political constituents/allies while denying such services to rival group dominated areas; Utilization of military personnel with inadequate language skills to (mis)record crucial personal data for compensation purposes; Resistance to relocating earthquake-impacted populations at higher altitudes to safer, warmer areas possibly to keep politically sensitive areas from being depopulated.
Fasi Khan
MNA (6 times)
S. Khan
Step Brother
A. Khan
Jamil Bakh
Fakhar
Religious Leaders
Wasif Hameed Abid Hamid Atif Naveed Waqas Moulana Taki Siraj Hashim Aqil Shah Saad Khan Saifullah Khan
Affiliation
SYED Q. KHAN
Affiliation
Shahgee
Anwar Shah
Source: Ali, S. M. and Brigitta Bode (2007). The State, Feudal Lords, and Poverty in Rural Pakistan. Unpublished paper for an INGO.
LGO 2001
Local government made a comeback in the national political landscape with the 2001 Local Government Ordinance (LGO) of General Musharraf, who assumed power through a coup in 1999.
Local government system 2001
Future of devolution
Despite the aim of Musharrafs militarybacked government to utilize local government bodies for political gain, allies suffered major setbacks in the elections, with surprisingly high levels of popular support for secular parties. It has yet to be seen whether the current, democratically elected civilian government in Pakistan will chart a new path for the future of local governance.
Power mapping
Map of Basti Union
Spatial strategy for development of remote disaster hit areas (utilizing cash for roads/work schemes) Utilizing such spatial strategies for development in remote, disaster hit (and prone) areas via cash for road and work schemes provides a means for overcoming problems of access while providing immediate relief to what would otherwise remain marginalized communities
Main road
The great owners ignored the three cries of history. The land fell into fewer hands, the number of the dispossessed increased, and every effort of the great owners was directed at repression. The money was spent for arms, for gas to protect the great holdings, and spies were sent to catch the murmuring of revolt so that it might be stamped out. The changing economy was ignored, plans for the change ignored; and only means to destroy revolt were considered, while the causes of revolt went on. Supreme Court of Pakistan, 2003 (quoting John Steinbecks Grapes of Wrath in a court ruling in favor of a peasant whose land had been seized by a military brigadier)