Situation Report 25th June

• The influx of large numbers of IDPs in certain camps has created the need for suitable land to establish new IDP camps as well as a corresponding need to decongest some existing sites.
  
• Congestion in a number of camps is impacting living standards.
  
• Additional humanitarian partners are needed to provide and distribute food to camps and schools.
  
• There is a need to ensure the availability of fortified blended food for the supplementary feeding programme.
• Returning IDPs need maize seed and fertilizer to have a bumper kharif (maize) crop to compensate for the winter rabi (wheat) crop which was not harvested.

Read the full Sitaution Report 25th June, 2009

Zero Accountability

There are a significant amount of resources and funds going into the Relief Effort of the Swat, Dir and Buner IDP's. Funds coming in from different Nations, various national and international organizations and even from our own government but there is no way of knowing how most of it is being utilized. No Black and White picture of what is required for the IDP's and what things are being provided, to what areas and to what percentile of the affected. I am afraid that this might prove to be a shining opportunity for the corrupt personnel; and the resources that should be going into helping the ones in need might go into further lining the already some quite well lined pockets, With zero accountability and zero transparency of the whole process of fund collection and utilization this is inevitable. If only there was a centralized, reliable way of disposing of these funds then a lot of the problems being faced can be solved such as equitable distribution of the right kind of aid and keeping corruption in check by implementing timely audits.

The Media Blank

Though we hear that the Military Operation to clear the areas of Swat, Buner and Dir of militants is going well and that victory is at hand (or so it is said) we get to know precious little of the state of the people who have been forced into exile due to this operation. I wonder at the likes of media frenzy such that was created on the issue of the restoration of Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry as the Chief Justice and the Lawyer movement is conspicuously absent in this case when Pakistan has a real humanitarian crisis at hand. What possible tactical advantage are we to gain by toning down this reality?