Report: Desperate situation in Thatta district

30-Aug-2010

SOS: 250,000 Displace, 70% Are Women & Children, worst Human Crisis in Thatta District, Act now

On  Saturday I was in Makli city  (one of the oldest necropolises of world) 6 Km from Thatta city, extreme south of the country near Arabian Sea, nearly 250,000 have been poured in and around Makli city(its own population is 20,000) for last five days from all areas of the Thatta district,90 km from Karachi. Almost 50% of the 1.6 million population of the district has been displaced at the moment. The district is mostly coastal area where Indus river fall into Arabian Sea. There all 9 sub divisions of the district is inundated by the flood. I was accompanied with Comrade Sherbaz of Progressive youth Front, Jabbar Khaskhaili(Labour Party Pakistan), Naseem Haider(Pakistan Steel Democratic Workers Union)

Majority of displaced are with out shelter ,food, water and medicine. Situation is very worst and depressing, government and other relief bodies are no where, hundred of thousand women and children have been crying for immediate help. They are in open space every where in scorching heat, thousands have taken refuge in historic grave yard of Makli including in tombs of nobles .

We have started  some immediate relief to the needy but challenge is larger than our capacity, human catastrophe is looming large and every passing hour has been making life unbearable for the displaced hundred of thousands especially for women and children.

We are going to establish relief camp in Makli for 30 families from this week.

The situation is very volatile, thousands have protested against army and administration on main road on Friday and bitterness has been growing day by day.
We have send three consignment of food, clothes and medicine to Moro in last week period, five comrades Zehra Akber (Home Based Women Workers Federation), Shehla Rizwan(Labour Party Pakistan , Irfana Jabbar(Home Based Women Bangle Workers Union), Munawer and Mukhtiar Raho (LPP) have been in Moro for three days in Moro for relief work.

We have given shelter to 120 families from Jaffarabad in Hub Balochistan through National Trade Union Federation(NTUF) in seven quarters of Workers Welfare Board and committed to supply food and medicine to flood victims.

Some amount is in our hand for food purchase for Moro camps which we have already pledged so in this situation we immediately require your intervention to cope the situation in Thatta district, my request you to send us 200,000 as soon as possible.

Thanking you
In solidarity
Nasir Mansoor

Press Release: Political parties demand debt cancelation, resolve to launch mass movement to refuse debt

Political parties demand debt cancelation, resolve to launch mass movement to refuse debt

Multi Party Conference against debt repayments

Labour Relief Campaign called a multi party conference on Sunday 29^th August in Lahore. The conference was called to discuss the issue of repayments of the debts in the post-flood scenario. The conference took place at Hotel Ambassador Lahore. Twenty-eight political parties, trade unions, social movements and professional associations were invited to present their views (listed at end).

The conference began with Khaliq Shah, focal person of the Campaign for the Abolition of Third World Debt, who argued that there are strong legal, ethical and political arguments for immediate suspension of debt servicing and refusal of further loans. He also presented historical precedents from Latina America and Africa to support his argument. Debt, in his view, is not merely a financial but also a political issue. He pointed out that debt incurred by dictators is considered under international law to be illegitimate debt and its burden should not be borne by future generations. According to some estimates, he claimed, Pakistan’s debt has already been paid back at least eight times over. Hence, debt is an integral part of the system of re-colonization prevalent in the Third World.

Aasim Sajjad Akhtar, academic, writer and activist of the Workers Party Pakistan, pointed out that the debt re-scheduling touted by the previous dictator as his big success in 2008 are going to fall due in 2005 and this risked taking our debt as a percentage of GDP to more than 70%, thus approaching the 80% limit recognized by the World Bank as being unsustainable. He remarked that his group’s research indicated that up to 80% of Pakistan’s debt was incurred during dictatorial regimes. Elaborating on the political aspects of the campaign, Akhtar suggested questioning the rationale of the heavy military budget, which, even in this time of acute crisis, is not being reviewed.

In the open discussion that followed, the debt issue and its political ramifications were debated all the delegates present. Jamil Omar, president of the Awami Jamhoori Forum, suggested setting up a monitoring mechanism staffed and run by the network of activist organized represented in the conference, to ensure transparency and accountability in the spending of the funds freed up from debt servicing. He was of the view that such an effort was an ethical imperative subsequent to the cancelation of the debt. Senator Hasil Bizenjo of the National Party fully supported the idea of debt cancelation as a means of challenging the prevalent political order and offered to present a motion in the Senate to discuss the matter. Advocate Abid Hassan Minto, president of the Workers Party Pakistan, presented a detailed analysis of the current socio-economic situation and suggested the formation of a committee composed of like-minded political and social organizations that would build a political movement based on the demands emerging from the conference. He also suggested that a delegation from the committee should meet sympathetic parliamentarians to raise awareness of the issue among the people’s representatives. Another concrete suggestion of his was for all progressive citizens to band together to collect funds for this political movement.

Various participants in the meeting shed light on the various issues tied to the issue of the debt cancellation. Instead of accepting new loan offers, Pakistan must stand for the total and unconditional repudiation of its foreign debt.  Time and again, countries facing tragedies, like Pakistan’s catastrophic flooding, are forced by International Financial Institutions and donor countries to mortgage their future as they borrow for relief and recovery efforts.  Thus, the tragedy is magnified for years to come.

The recent floods represent the worst disaster in Pakistan’s history. The country has been devastated from the Northern Areas to its southern tip. The State, stripped of its capacity to meet peoples’ needs by neoliberalism and militarism alike, has been found wanting — both in its longstanding failure to maintain existing infrastructure, and in its response to the calamity.

Evidence is also emerging that links these floods to rising atmospheric temperatures, and thus to climate change. Three-quarters of all carbon emissions have been produced by only 20% of the world’s population, and it is the poor in the developing world who are bearing the brunt of the resulting environmental degradation. The rich countries ought to offer urgent reparations to Pakistan as compensation for suffering the costs of others’ industrialization. 

It was resolved that the committee will also look into the negative impact of climate change in Pakistan.

The following points were included in the conference resolution:

-         Immediate suspension of repayment of external debt

-         Countries and donor institutions wishing to help Pakistan may do so in the forms of grants, not loans. No more new loans.

-         Military budget needs to be reviewed.

-         Setting up of an audit commission to conduct a public enquiry into Pakistan’s external debt. The commission should have constitutional cover.

-         Climate change reparations to be paid to Pakistan by industrialized countries

-         Federal flood relief commission to be set up to oversee all relief, rehabilitation and reconstruction work in the wake of the floods.

It was decided in the conference to take the campaign to the masses and organize rallies in Lahore, Islamabad & Karachi. The first rally will be in Islamabad on Sept. 2, 2010.

Labour Relief Campaign formed in 2005 after the devastating earthquake in Pakistan is comprised of 8 organizations; they include National Trade Union Federation, Women Workers Help Line, CADTM Pakistan, Labour Party Pakistan, Progressive Youth Front, Pakistan For Palestine, Labour Education Foundation and Pakistan Kissan Rabita Committee. LRC has been busy in organizing and raising funds for the flood victims and also launching a national campaign against payments of debts.

Following organization has been invited to the event.

1        National Party

2        Workers Party  Pakistan 

3        Istiqlal Party

4        Awami National Party 

5        Saraiki National Party

6        Labour Party Pakistan

7        Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf 

8        National Trade Union Federation 

9        Pakistan Trade Union Defense Campaign 

10    Pakistan Workers Confederation 

11    Joint Action Committee for People’s Rights 

12    Supreme Court Bar Association 

13    Pakistan Professors and Lecturers Association 

14    Human Rights Commission of Pakistan 

15    Khawateen Mahaz-e-Amal 

16    Awami Jamhori Forum  

17    South Asia Partnership (SAP) 

18    Sangi Development Foundation  

19    Anjuman Mozaarein-e-Punjab

20    Labour Qaumi Movement

21    People Lawyers Forum

22    Asian Marxist Review

23    Pakistan Institute of Labour & Research

24    Pakistan Peace Coalition

25    Institute of Peace and Secular Studies

26    Jamhoori Publications

27    Aasha

28    Women Workers Helpline

Please send us your suggestion for more parties and groups to be invited to this Multi Party Conference:

Labour Relief Campaign

25 A Davis Road

042-36303808, 0300-8411945

Floods and Debt: Pakistan under a double penalty

By Damien Millet, Sophie Perchellet , Eric Toussaint

27 August 2010

Because of torrential rains lasting several days Pakistan is facing one of the worst predicaments in human and material terms for the last 80 years. The damage inflicted is stunning. About 22 million people are affected by the floods. Many infrastructures have been unable to withstand the onslaught of rain. Roads and harbours can no longer be used. Millions of people have had to leave their houses, and the UN estimates that there are 5 million left homeless. Makeshift refugee camps have been set up, and some 1 million people already live there in disgraceful sanitary conditions. The south of the country, and more particularly the province of Snidh, has been badly shaken by this catastrophe. Economic losses amount to billions with the farming industry severely hit, large tracts of farmland having been destroyed.

Pakistan needs help. On 20 August 2010, UN member countries committed to giving USD 200 million, but this was a mere promise, and past experience has taught us that only a limited portion will actually reach the country. The Asian Development Bank, which was to manage the consequences of the December 2004 tsunami, declared that it would lead the reconstruction effort in Pakistan and already announced a USD 2 billion loan. The World Bank added a loan of USD 900 million. Deeply damaged by a natural catastrophe, Pakistan now has to face a significant increase in its debt.

While emergency aid is essential, we have to consider what is at stake in Pakistan. In August 2008 the country was close to defaulting. Compelled to accept the help of the IMF, it has received so far a total of 11.3 billion dollars in loans with particularly harsh conditionalities: the sale of a million hectares of farmland, an end to government subsidies on fuel, an increase in the price of electricity, drastic cuts in social expenditures, etc. Only the military budget has been spared. Finally this loan has made living conditions even more difficult while jeopardizing the country’s sovereignty.

Today Pakistan’s external debt amounts to 54 billion dollars with 3 billion paid back every year. This debt, which exploded after 2000, is largely odious. The former regime of General Pérez Musharraf was a strategic ally of the US in the region, particularly after 9/11. Major creditors never baulked at granting Musharraf the funds he needed to pursue his policies. In the fall of 2001 the US asked for Pakistan’s support in its war against Afghanistan. Musharraf had accepted that his country be used as a support base for US troops and those of its allies. Later the Musharraf regime contracted more debts, with the active help of the World Bank and major powers. The loans granted have no legitimacy: they were used to buttress Musharraf’s dictatorship and did not improve the living conditions of the Pakistani people. The debt contracted by this dictatorial regime is odious. Creditors were aware of the situation when they granted their loans, and given these facts it is outrageous that the Pakistani people be made to pay for the odious debt contracted by Musharraf.

In such circumstances outright cancellation of the debt is a minimum demand. As Ecuador did in 2007-2008, several countries have now carried out an audit of their debts in order to cancel their odious parts. Pakistan can and should follow such an example. Another legal mechanism of non-payment should be taken into account in this country devastated by floods - namely the state of necessity. In this context it can claim that funds must be used to meet vital needs and not to repay its debt, without being sued for reneging on its commitments. The potential savings of three billions dollars could then be used for social expenditures to help the population.

It is therefore high time for the government of Pakistan to suspend payment of its external debt, to carry out an audit of the same, and to decide on a repudiation of the part of it that is odious. Far from being an end in itself, these measures should be a first step towards a radically different model of development based at long last on a guarantee of fundamental human rights.

Damien Millet is spokesperson for CADTM France (Committee for the Cancellation of the Third World Debt, www.cadtm.org), Sophie Perchellet is vice-president of CADTM France, Eric Toussaint is president of CADTM Belgique. Latest publication:La crise, quelles crises ? , CADTM/Aden/CETIM, December 2009.

Aricle: Why Doesn't the World Care About Pakistanis?

Why Doesn't the World Care About Pakistanis?

Because they live in Pakistan.

BY MOSHARRAF ZAIDI | AUGUST 19, 2010

The United Nations has characterized the destruction caused by the floods in Pakistan as greater than the damage from the 2004 Asian tsunami, the 2005 Pakistan earthquake, and the 2010 Haiti earthquake combined. Yet nearly three weeks since the floods began, aid is trickling in slowly and reluctantly to the United Nations, NGOs, and the Pakistani government. 

After the Haiti earthquake, about 3.1 million Americans using mobile phones donated $10 each to the Red Cross, raising about $31 million. A similar campaign to raise contributions for Pakistan produced only about $10,000. The amount of funding donated per person affected by the 2004 tsunami was $1249.80, and for the 2010 Haiti earthquake, $1087.33. Even for the Pakistan earthquake of 2005, funding per affected person was $388.33. Thus far, for those affected by the 2010 floods, it is $16.36 per person. 

Why has the most devastating natural disaster in recent memory generated such a tepid response from the international community? Something of a cottage industry is emerging to try to answer this latest and most sober of international mysteries. 

There is no shortage of theories. It's donor fatigue. It's Pakistan fatigue. It's because the Pakistani government is corrupt and can't be trusted. It's because the victims are Muslim. It's because people think a nuclear power should be able to fend for itself. It's because floods -- particularly these floods -- spread their destruction slowly, over a period of time, rather than instantaneously. It's because of the tighter budgets of Western governments. It's because of the lingering effects of the financial crisis. 

There's a degree of truth to all these explanations. But the main reason that Pakistan isn't receiving attention or aid proportionate to the devastation caused by these floods is because, well, it's Pakistan. Given a catastrophe of such epic proportions in any normal country, the world would look first through a humanitarian lens. But Pakistan, of course, is not a normal country. When the victims are Haitian or Sri Lankan -- hardly citizens of stable, well-government countries, themselves -- Americans and Europeans are quick to open their hearts and wallets. But in this case, the humanity of Pakistan's victims takes a backseat to the preconceived image that Westerners have of Pakistan as a country. 

Pakistan is a country that no one quite gets completely, but apparently everybody knows enough about to be an expert. If you're a nuclear proliferation expert, suddenly you're an expert on Pakistan. If you're terrorism expert, ditto: expert on Pakistan. India expert? Pakistan, too then. Of South Asian origin of any kind at a think-tank, university, or newspaper? Expert on Pakistan. Angry that your parents sent you to the wrong madrassa when you were young? Expert on Pakistan. 

This unique stock of global expertise on Pakistan naturally generates a scary picture. Between our fear of terrorism, nervousness about a Muslim country with a nuclear weapon, and global discomfort with an intelligence service that seems to do whatever it wants (rather than what we want it to do), Pakistan makes the world, and Americans in particular, extremely uncomfortable. In a 2008 Gallup poll of Americans, only Afghanistan, Iraq, the Palestinian Authority, North Korea, and Iran were less popular than Pakistan. 

The net result of Pakistan's own sins, and a global media that is gaga over India, is that Pakistan is always the bad guy. You'd be hard pressed to find a news story anywhere that celebrates the country's incredible scenery, diversity, food, unique brand of Islam, evolving and exciting musical tradition, or even its arresting array of sporting talent, though all those things are present in abundance. 

How bad is it? Well, in 2007, when the Pakistani cricket team's national coach, an Englishman named Bob Woolmer, was found dead in his hotel room, the first instinct of the international press was that a Pakistani team member must have killed him. This is the story of modern day Pakistan. 

Contrary to what many Pakistani conspiracy theorists believe, the suspicion and contempt with which the country is seen with is not deliberate or carefully calculated. It's just how things pan out when you are the perennial bad boy in a neighborhood that everyone wishes could be transformed into Scandinavia -- because after 9/11, the world cannot afford a dysfunctional ghetto in South and Central Asia anymore. Or so goes the paternalist doctrine. 
It is bad enough that the Pakistani elite don't seem eager to cooperate with this agenda of transformation; now, nature also seems to be set against it. The floods in Pakistan are the third major humanitarian crisis to afflict the country in recent years. The 2005 earthquake and the massive internal displacement of Pakistanis from Swat and the FATA region in 2009 were well-managed disasters, according to many international aid workers. While international support was valuable in mitigating the effects of those disasters, most experts agree that it was Pakistanis, both in government and civil society, that did the heavy lifting. 

The 2010 floods, however, are a game-changer. The country will not and cannot ever be the same. The loss of life, disease, poverty, and human misery themselves are going to take years to overcome. But the costs of desilting, cleaning up, and reconstructing Pakistan's most fertile and potent highways, canals, and waterworks will be exhausting just to calculate.  The actual task of building back this critical infrastructure is a challenge of unprecedented proportions. 

Last week, I visited a relatively well-to-do village called Pashtun Ghari in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. Pashtun Ghari is right off the historic Grand Trunk Road, and less than two miles from the river. Flood victims there did not feel abandoned by authorities, indeed they were quite satisfied with how they had been taken care of.  Still, there was inconsolable despair among residents. Why? The town's entire livestock population, some 2,300 cows, had perished beneath waters that stood more than 10 feet high in the first wave of flooding. Those cattle are both assets and income generators for Pakistani villagers along the Indus River. There is no recovering from losing that quantum of livestock. 

The fact that people in other countries don't like Pakistan very much doesn't change the humanity of those affected by the floods or their suffering. It is right and proper to take a critical view of Pakistani politicians, of their myopia and greed. It is understandable to be worried about the far-reaching capabilities of the Pakistani intelligence community and reports that they continue to support the Taliban in Afghanistan. It is even excusable that some indulge in the fantasy that a few hundred al Qaeda and Taliban terrorists are capable of taking over a country guarded by more than 750,000 men and women of the Pakistani military, and the 180 million folks that pay their salaries. 

But are the farmers of Pashtun Ghari, of Muzzafararh and Dera Ghazi Khan, of Shikarpur and Sukkur, really obligated to allay these fears before they can get help in replacing their lost livelihoods? Twenty million people are now struggling to find a dry place to sleep, a morsel of food to eat, a sip of clean water to drink -- and the questions we are asking have to do with politics and international security. The problem is not in Pakistan. It is where those questions are coming from. 

Pakistan has suffered from desperately poor moral leadership, but punishing the helpless and homeless millions of the 2010 floods is the worst possible way to express our rejection of the Pakistani elite and their duplicity and corruption. The poor, hungry, and homeless are not an ISI conspiracy to bilk you of your cash. They are a test of your humanity. Do not follow in the footsteps of the Pakistani elite by failing them. That would be immoral and inhumane. This is a time to ask only one question. And that question is: "How can I help?" 

Meeting Minutes LRC: 24th August, Lahore

(Edited by Qalandar Memon for on-line presentation -ie, removal of names of persons).

 LEF office on 24th August,

Attended by Khalid Malik, Qalandar Memon, Amna Keriaper, Niaz Khan, Kashaf Aslam, Farooq Tariq, Cindy Kariaper, Ahad,
Apology: Khaliq Shah, Bushra Khaliq

By Aman Kariaper

1. Details of collaboration of LRC with PTV through the PTV World telethon - distribution through Paharh Mazdoor Union and Afghan refugee camp contacts, to be recorded by PTV, goods to be bought by PTV according to needs of the affected people in Pir Sabaq

2. Details of collaboration with Swiss Labour Assistance (organ of the Swiss SDP) - tools for construction work + metal sheets for privacy. This organization plans to stay and help rehabilitate the affected population for a few more months. They are working in one other location apart from Pir Sabaq.

3. Swiss Labour Assistance has asked for 2 part-time helpers - two young people from among the affected have been trained in surveying at the UNHCR office in Peshawar and have already surveyed 500 families.

4. Updates from Morro, Hyderabad/Jamshoro and Karachi. In Morro, the relief collection effort is led by the Sindh LRC, supported by the traders of the town who have nominated Younas Rahu as the convener of the effort. In Hyderabad, effort by combined team of LPP and Aadersh magazine. Presided by Dr. Bakhshal Thalloo, president of the Pakistan Veterinary Doctors Association and LPP fed com member. Karachi has send two trucks of essential relief goods already to Morro, [We should add the sms and email report received from these three places.]

5. 125000 Rupees to be send immediately to Pir Sabaq through Farooq Ahmad, Hyderabad, Jamshoro through Bukhshal Thaloo, and Sibbi through Aziz Baluch fro flood relief activities

6. Finances: Current balance: Rs. 376,746 + USD 200. Total collected so far: 826,836, spent so far: 450,090.

7. Multi-party conference on debt payment refusal issue - not to be funded from Labour Relief Campaign funds.  but to be presented on the Labour Relief Campaign platform.  

Multi Party Conference against debt repayments

Multi Party Conference against debt repayments

Labour Relief Campaign has called a multi party conference on Sunday 29^th August in Lahore. The conference will discuss the issue of repayments of the debts and post flood scenario. The conference will take place at Hotel Ambassador Lahore and will start at 2pm. Over 30 political parties’ trade unions and social movements are being invited to present their views.

The calling of the conference is part of the campaign for non payments of the foreign debts. The strategies adopted by the government of Pakistan to deal with the devastating situation after the blood could bring even more miseries in longer terms. The Government has been offered by World Bank to provide new loan to Pakistan of $900 million and the Asian Development Bank’s announcement for a $2 billion emergency loan. They are loans and not aid. If accepted, these loans willlead an already debt-trapped Pakistan to worst economic bewilderness.

An alternative strategy offered by Labour relief Campaign is to demand Pakistan say no to the repayments of the debts and stop raising more taxes and cuts in development budget.

One of the main aims of a proposed one day all parties conference will be to discuss the issues of debt in detail and to raise understanding among the political and social circles.

Instead of accepting new loan offers, Pakistan must stand for the total and unconditional repudiation of its foreign debt.  Time and again, countries facing tragedies, like Pakistan’s catastrophic flooding, are forced by International Financial Institutions and donor countries to mortgage their future as they borrow for relief and recovery efforts.  Thus, the tragedy is magnified for years to come.

The recent floods represent the worst disaster in Pakistan’s history. The country has been devastated from the Northern Areas to its Southern tip. The State, stripped of its capacity to meet peoples’ needs by neoliberalism and militarism alike, has been found wanting—both in its longstanding failure to maintain existing infrastructure, and in its response to the calamity.

The grassroots relief efforts that have emerged across the country are heartening, but a crisis of this magnitude can only be handled by an institution with the resources and reach of the federal government. As in all disasters, the assistance of the military will be necessary—but this must be subject to civilian oversight, and must not be exploited to glorify the Army at the expense of the civilian government. The military's relative strength is a direct legacy of pro-Army federal budgets.

Evidence is also emerging that links these floods to rising atmospheric temperatures, and thus to climate change. Three-quarters of all carbon emissions have been produced by only 20% of the world’s population, and it is the poor in the developing world who are bearing the brunt of the resulting environmental degradation. The rich countries ought to offer urgent reparations to Pakistan as compensation for suffering the costs of others’ industrialization.
The conference will also look into the negative impact of climate change in Pakistan.

Finally, after the corruption that marked earthquake relief efforts, we recognize the importance of the aid being distributed in a transparent and democratic manner. We support the creation of a separate national commission to oversee reconstruction spending, provided it fulfills its mandate and is made entirely open to public scrutiny. All relevant authorities, like the NDMA, should further be brought under civilian control.

All these issues will be open for discussion in the event to be organized on Sunday 29^th August 2010 at Hotel Ambassador Lahore. Political parties except religious parties, main trade unions federations, social and peasant movements, professional organizations and youth groups will be invited to participate in this one day event. The conference will discuss further actions of mass mobilization to trail its agreed agenda.

Labour Relief Campaign formed in 2005 after the devastating earthquake in Pakistan is comprised of 8 organizations; they include National Trade Union Federation, Women Workers Help Line, CADTM Pakistan, Labour Party Pakistan, Progressive Youth Front, Pakistan For Palestine, Labour Education Foundation and Pakistan Kissan Rabita Committee. LRC has been busy in organizing and raising funds for the flood victims and also launching a national campaign against payments of debts.

Following organization has been invited to the event.

1 Pakistan People’s Party 

2 Pakistan Muslim League (N) 

3 Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf 

4 Workers Party  Pakistan 

5 National Party

6 Awami National Party 

7 Balochistan National Party 

8 Awami Tehreek 

9 Awami Party

10 Sindh Taraqi Pasand Party 

11 Saraiki National Party

12 Saraiki Party

13 Saraiki Look Party

14 National Trade Union Federation 

15 Pakistan Trade Union Defense Campaign 

16 Pakistan Workers Confederation 

17 Joint Action Committee for People’s Rights 

18 Peoples Rights Movement 

19 District Bar Association 

20 Lahore High Court Bar Association

21 Supreme Court Bar Association 

22 Pakistan Professors and Lecturers Association 

23 Pakistan Medical Association 

24 Pakistan Traders Association 

25 Human Rights Commission of Pakistan 

26 Peoples Labour Beauru   

27 Khawateen Mahaz-e-Amal 

28 Federal Union of Journalists  

29 Punjab Union of Journalists  

30 Lahore Press Club

31 Awami Jamhori Forum  

32 South Asia Partnership (SAP) 

33 OXFAM Pakistan 

34 Sangi Development Foundation  

35 Action Aid Pakistan

FAQ: How to send money from UK?

For the month of August the best way for individuals to contribute to Labour Relief Campaign is to money via Western Union.  WU are offering a free service for the month.

Please contact us for more information on the details of who to send the money to.

labourreliefcamp@gmail.com

Appeal issued on August 12, 2010

It is over 20 million people affected by the flood now

The flood is still on dangerous levels in several parts of Pakistan. The numbers of people effected by the flood have crossed 20 million. More torrential rains are forecast by the weather department. This is been considered one of the most devastating flood in world history. The UN has once again appealed for donations for Pakistan. But there has been a very slow response internationally to help Pakistan in this period of great devastation.

After destroying most of Khaiber Pukhtoonkhawa and Southern Punjab, the water has now washed down the Indus River Valley, causing a deluge in Sindh. The water has been powered by unusually fierce monsoon rains that began in country’s northern areas some three weeks ago.

Roads, bridges and other infrastructure have given way, overwhelming the government's ability to cope. At this point an estimated 1,600 have been killed with another 5 million left homeless.

The Labour Relief Campaign (LRC), launched in October 2005 after an earthquake killed nearly 100,000, has put up relief camps in several parts of Pakistan. The LRC springs into action whenever there is an emergency situation. Member organizations include Progressive Youth Front, Women Workers Help Line, Labour Education Foundation, National Trade Union Federation, CADTM Pakistan, Labour Party Pakistan, Pakistan For Palestine and Pakistan Kissan Rabita Committee. Currently the Lahore camp at Regal Chouck is raising thousands of rupees every day in aid.

Here is report of a union council in Khaiber Pukhtoon Khawa province by a team of four LRC members led by Farooq Ahmad, member of the federal executive committee, Labour Party Pakistan:

On 29 July Pir Sabaq, a Union Council of Nowshehra district, with a population of more than 34,000, is completely destroyed by the recent flood waters. A tent city of more than 1,000 tents has been established but most of the people are still forced to live in homes partially destroyed by the flood. This can lead to a major building collapsing any time, resulting in the further loss of lives.

In addition to losing their homes most people found their household items have been swept away. They have lost their cattle and goats as well. People without anything to eat, drink or wear.

Pir Sabaq is mainly a town of working-class people who work in marble or stone-crushing factories, or in the construction sector or agriculture sectors. When a LRC team visited yesterday, local people told about how water more than 14 feet high reached the town’s roof tops. Since the flood came around 4 a.m., while people were sleeping in the comfort of their homes, there was no chance to save anything but their lives.

The owners of small tourist boats did their best to help save lives of common people.

By contrast, when army helicopters arrived at the scene, they began evacuating the families of military men and residents of the big houses. People immediately saw the way the army discriminated about who they aided. People told the LRC team that many stranded on the roof tops of their houses waved their hands in the air when they saw the army helicopters coming, but it was of no use.

People have also blamed the government for failing to inform them on time about the danger of the flood. Some also charged that water was allowed to flow from the Warsik dam in order to save the nearby military camps.

The LRC team saw the house of Pervaiz Lala, general secretary of LPP in Pir Sabaq. It, like the majority, was completely destroyed; he and his family is now homeless. He told them the people did not eat for almost three days after the flood. Not a single governmental official has visited the area so far. The information minister of KP province, Mian Iftikhar Hussain, stated in clear terms that the provincial government cannot do anything to help people in this disaster. however two days before an NGO started providing some food.

There is still water all over Pir Sabaq. A bad smell is everywhere and no clean drinking water is available. The children are suffering from diarrhea and skin rashes. The local government dispensary, the only medical facility for the townspeople, has been totally destroyed. In this environment people are haunted by the possibility of diseases being spread.

People now are in need of: food items like cooking oil, wheat flour, milk, sugar, clean drinking water, vegetables, clothes, tents, cooking utensils and medicine.

Here is an appeal we launched on 7^th August that gives you some more information and the ways to help the campaign.

Appeal issued on August 7, 2010

More than 12 million people suffering from floods in Pakistan

Please donate to Labour Relief Campaign to help people of Pakistan

Pakistan is facing worst ever floods of its history. Torrential rains have unleashed flash floods in different parts of the country since last three weeks. Water levies broke leaving the people exposed to flood water.  It is devastating scene on the television screens all the time. More rains expected during next three days. It is the worst flood we ever had. The government did not realize the scale of the losses earlier. Now they are all saying that this flood has done more damage than the October 2005 earth quack. In that earth quack, over 100,000 lost their lives and damage was mainly in two areas. The present floods have affected almost all parts of Pakistan. It is estimated that over 140 million people have been affected. In several areas, people are still trapped. More than 650,000 houses have collapsed, mainly in villages. Thousands of acres of crops have been destroyed due to flood water. Houses, live-stock such as cattle’s and goats, household goods, clothes, shoes and other items have been destroyed.  Residents of villages are currently without drinkable water, food, shelter and in need of clothes.  In particular, the situation is dire for children and women and they are in desperate need of food and clothing.  Disease is spreading fast in the areas affected due to lack of drinkable water.  In particular, flu, fever, diarrhea, cholera have been noted and are spreading.  

The government’s response has made matters worse.  They failed to act immediately, leaving tens of thousands of people unaided.  They came after twenty four hours to the make-shift camps with paltry amount of food bags to distribute.  The gap between the food being distributed and the large number of people desperate to eat led to fighting breaking out making matters even worse for these desperate people.

Despite the fact that there is very little coverage in the media, the fact remains that the situation in Balochistan is just as bad as in Khyber-Pakhtoonkhwa and western and southern Punjab. As usual, also, they are not at the top of the government's priority list.

The Labour Education Foundation, Labour Party of Pakistan, National Trade Union Federation, Women Workers Help Line and Progressive Youth Front have set up Labour Flood Relief Camps in Lahore and so far have collected more than 300,000 rupees. Rs. 110,000 have already been sent to Baloachistan and more than 200,000 are on way to Southern Punjab to help flood victims.  

We appeal our friends and organizations in Pakistan and abroad for donations of a monetary kind or in the form of drinking water, clothes (new), shoes, medicine.  

For further information please contact:

Khalid Mahmood

Director

Labour Education Foundation

Ground Floor, 25-A Davis Road,

Lahore, Pakistan.

Email: khalid@lef.org.pk

Tel: 0092 42 6303808, 0092 42 6315162, Fax: 0092 42 6271149

Mobile: 0092 321 9402322

If you wish to transfer funds, below are details of the account for sending money to the LRC.

A/C Title: Labour Education Foundation

A/C Number: 01801876

Route:

Please advise and pay to Citi Bank, New York, USA Swift CITI US 33 for onward transfer to BANK ALFALAH LTD., KARACHI, PAKISTAN A/C No. 36087144 and for final transfer to BANK ALFALAH LTD., LDA PLAZA, KASHMIR ROAD, LAHORE, PAKISTAN Swift: ALFHPKKALDA for A/C No. 01801876 OF LABOUR EDUCATION FOUNDATION.