The flood assessment, which cost $30 billion, is profoundly inaccurate.
A shocking admission was made by a high-ranking official: the government did not have district-wise data on the population affected by the recent floods in the country, casting doubt on the Post-Disaster Need Assessment report that estimated losses at more than $30 billion.
While answering a question from a member of the National Assembly Standing Committee on Finance on Wednesday, National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) Director (Operations) Brig Muhammad Umar made the shocking admission that the agency had ignored the human cost in terms of manpower and resources.
The lack of information has resulted in hundreds of thousands of people affected by floods going without necessities like blankets and tents as winter approaches, as revealed by committee proceedings.
The committee meeting was called to discuss the relief and rehabilitation effort in the flood-affected areas, and whether or not punitive action was taken against the commercial banks that manipulated the exchange rate.
When MNA Dr. Nafisa Shah asked the NDMA’s director (operations) how many people had been affected by the flood in the Khairpur district of Sindh, he responded, “I do not have the data of the affected people.”
Dr. Shah asked the question after learning that the authority had distributed 9,380 tents and 9,000 blankets in Dr. Shah’s district of Khairpur.
Dr. Shah estimates that between 100,000 and 150,000 people in the Khairpur district were impacted by the floods. Thousands of people in her district, she said, had been left to the mercy of the harsh weather and were desperately looking for shelter and warm clothing because the NDMA did not yet have town- and district-level data available.
She also noted that while “there is no denying the fact that the relief goods are coming,” there is currently no information available at the level of the union council. The MNA reported that the process of listing homes had begun, but she expressed frustration at the slow pace at which it was progressing.
Moreover, the PDNA report, which was compiled by the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, the United Nations Development Programme, and the European Union, has been called into question as a result of these revelations, as have the government’s promises to help the people affected by the flood.
The total cost of damages and losses is estimated at $30 billion, while the cost of reconstruction is calculated at $16.3 billion. However, the 33 million people who the government and the PDNA reports say were affected by the floods are not specified.
Over 33 million people have been impacted by the flooding that has submerged one-third of the country. Almost eight million people have been uprooted, the PDNA claims. More than 1,700 people, including a third of all children, were reported dead as a result of the floods.
Dr. Shah, on the other hand, said that the number of child deaths, including those caused by water-related illnesses, was closer to 5,000 to 6,000 in her district alone. Dr. Shah said that while some families have gotten food parcels more than once, other families haven’t gotten any at all because they don’t have the right paperwork.
While it is unclear how many people have been affected, Pakistan has been asking for international aid in an effort to reach out to those who have. For the most immediate needs of 9.5 million people, Pakistan upgraded its emergency aid appeal to United Nations members in October, asking for $816 million. But as of October 21st, just 13.7 percent of the total sum asked has been funded, as reported by PDNA.
Standing committee chairman Qaiser Ahmad Sheikh of the Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) also addressed the problem of a lag in punishing commercial banks for currency manipulation.
The ruling alliance’s legislators lost patience after the economic team failed to lower the dollar’s value against the rupee to below Rs200, as evidenced by the proceedings, which included the imposition of fines.
Chaudhry Barjees Tahir, a senior lawmaker for the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, has demanded that Finance Minister Ishaq Dar appear before the standing committee and explain why he has been unable to lower the dollar’s value to below Rs200.
Tahir claimed that the wealthy banks were allowed to continue gambling with the nation’s future while the poor were punished for committing minor offenses. That no measures have been taken against financial institutions is the day’s most notable development.
Bank hearings are “almost complete,” according to SBP Deputy Governor Dr. Inayat Hussain, and “internal validation” is currently underway at the central bank. Similar to what the SBP governor said earlier this week, he stated that the penalties against the banks would be imposed by November 30.
Hussain stated that the value of the rupee was under constant pressure due to a lack of capital inflows and insufficient financial inflows caused by both external and internal issues. The acting governor expressed optimism that things would turn around in the coming months.
MNA Khalid Magsi of the government-aligned Balochistan Awami Party asked, “First we tried Miftah Ismail, and then we tried Ishaq Dar, now who is next in line?” According to him, the country’s economic trajectory is still uncertain. According to Magsi, “the SBP appears to be lenient on the banks.”
The SBP informed the standing committee that it had conducted an assessment of the significantly increased foreign exchange income of the banks in the first half of 2022 based on regular monitoring and complaints received from banks’ customers regarding charging higher margins in the opening of import LCs.
According to Dr. Shah, this statement shows that the SBP is defending the commercial banks by claiming that the significant increase in foreign exchange income is primarily due to the rise in daily volatility of the exchange rate, which in turn resulted in the widening of the spreads charged by the banks.
