Balakot:
Pakistan’s New Orleans
By Mohammad Ashraf
Chaudhry
Pittsburg, CA
Katrina hurricane destroyed
New Orleans on August 29, and turned it into a
ghost town, and on October 8, 2005 the earthquake
in Pakistan wiped out Balakot, a small, scenic
town in the northwest part of Pakistan. The natural
calamities that visited these two towns of unequal
dimensions had one thing in common: their destruction
was wrought by nature with precision and vengeance.
But, what brought both to the focus of attention
somewhat urgently and differently had not been
their destruction, but their initial neglect.
Katrina exposed the weaknesses as well as the
strengths of the American society. Exaggerated
or realistic tales of looting and shooting in
the wake of the tragedy, and the delay in responding
quickly to the situation on the part of the relevant
agencies, along with allegations of racial discrimination
behind the delay to reach out the African Americans
were orchestrated full-blare. However, such allegations
also sent a positive signal. They quickened the
relief response to the extent that the President
himself spent a little more than a week in the
city. The generosity of the American people to
help and rebuild, and their resilience to stay
unbroken and upbeat in the wake of such disasters
as Katrina, are qualities that also came to the
forefront in the wake of this tragedy. And these
are the sterling merits that far outshine, and
consequently eclipse all the moral lapses that
several 24-hour news broadcasters and media men
orchestrated in the news stories day and night.
Balakot and Bagh, on the other hand, had not been
so lucky. They did, however, expose the degenerated
moral state of the nation, and the un-preparedness
of the government in the wake of natural calamities
of this dimension. Every household in Pakistan
has a colored TV, and every second person, including
students, carry a fancy cellular phone. The country
is a nuclear power, and has an establishment,
which consists of over 100 federal ministers and
state ministers. What they do not have at home
is a simple shovel and hoe, or a first-aid kit.
They have cars but have no ambulances. All the
construction works done by contractors at the
behest of the government proved to be mere straws
in the eye of a hurricane. Once the nation comes
out of this trauma, it most urgently needs to
look carefully at its order of priorities.
Villages after villages have been swallowed by
the schisms created by the 7.6 magnitude quake.
Hundreds of children who had just finished singing
the national anthem and had hardly settled down
to their first lessons, faced death when the cheaply
built concrete buildings of the schools simply
collapsed on them. What little had been left standing
came to be engulfed by the massive landslides
that swept down into deep ravines and finally
into the river valleys below. Imagine the helplessness
of the simple, and resource-less villagers who
survived to see their children die right in front
of their eyes as they cried for help, and help
it was that never came on time.
The BBC showed people crying for help for hours
but nobody came to even assess the situation.
One girls’ school and one boys’ school
in Gardhi Habibullah and one in Balakot either
got flattened, or were swallowed by the earth
with children buried alive underneath, according
to Mr. Yameen Khan, police chief of Mansehra.
The Degree College of Bagh became a living grave
for the young students for it just caved on them.
One AFP reporter described the disaster as “unimaginable”.
Balakot, a gateway town to the Kaghan Valley tourist
region, had not been as inaccessible as are many
harshly hit remote villages in the Poonch and
Muzaffarabad districts of Azad Kashmir. Yet the
neglect and delinquency on the part of the government
had been incomprehensible. It was sad to hear
people cursing the President and the army though
under the circumstances they began doing what
was humanly possible. This little neglect had
a very heavy image toll. Some military commanders,
some civilian bureaucrats flunked somewhere. And
what happened to the provincial and national representatives
of these areas? Drastic disciplinary measures
need to be taken against those whose negligence
cost thousands of lives on the one hand, and a
bad name to the army in a field in which its record
has always been superb.
THE GREAT 1906 SANFRANCISCO EARTHQUAKE
AND THE 2005 PAKISTAN EARTHQUAKE.
Geologists laugh at the folly of the people who
choose to live on or near the hills because for
them these Himalayan and Hindu Kush mountains
are the direct result of the ram-like cruel upward
push of the tectonic plates. There is hardly any
Wordsworthian romantic view of nature with the
geologists. For them it has been silly on the
part of Wordsworth to say, “Nature never
betrays the heart that loved her”. Living
even near the hills is a dangerous proposition.
Please do tell the people of Balakot, Bagh and
Muzaffarabad this kind of stuff being taught in
our colleges. For them, it is Thomas Hardy’s
view of nature in which nature is always shown
either vying and conspiring to frustrate the simple
designs of life, or is just a neutral observer
of their hardships.
The geologists’ recommendation is that the
construction of high-rises beyond three-storey
should not be allowed in any circumstances. Islamabad
recently created a culture of towers, some even
rising as high as to 19-storey buildings. What
in the zest for money, nobody ever realized was
that it is possible to have been hit by a meteor,
or by an earthquake of 7.6 magnitude, it is just
not in the blood and soul of our contractors or
in those who supervise them to make sure that
the material used in such ventures is according
to the books.
The San Francisco earthquake of April 18, 1906
ranks as one of the most significant earthquakes
of all time, but no more now. It killed 3000 people,
and inflicted injuries on 225,000. On the Richter
scale it was registered 8.25, and it lasted for
about 48 seconds. The destruction of the city,
and especially of the Chinatown in the San Francisco
earthquake, was caused more by fire than by the
tremors. According to Overland Monthly, “Fire
has reclaimed to civilization and cleanliness
the Chinese ghetto, …it seems as though
a divine wisdom directed the range of the seismic
horror and the range of the fire god. Wisely,
the worst was cleared away with the best”.
The 1906 California earthquake tested the Americans,
and some great people emerged on the scene as
a result of the way they handled this tragedy.
One of them was a local postmaster, and another
a military commander.
Hopefully, Pakistanis also read positive messages
in their tragedy. The Saturday, October 8 earthquake
had been worse than the 1906 California earthquake.
On the Richter scale it could have been a little
less in intensity, 7.6, but its duration of close
to two minutes has been unprecedented. God just
forgot to stop shaking them. That the chastisement
and scourge of God would last that long for the
poor people of Pakistan warrants a real soul-searching
answer. Over 40,000 people have perished, and
the figure is still rising.
WHY NO FOREBODINGS?
Warnings have been there for people who had seeing
eyes and thoughtful minds. There had been a message
in Tsunami. Karachites had been hearing strange
voices for the last many days. The Holy Book is
very clear on this account. The scourge of Allah
becomes inevitable when people become unjust.
The Qur’an describes massive earthquakes,
volcanoes, typhoons, hurricanes, and every type
of natural disaster as the start of the Hour.
Has the first horn been sounded that the universe
has responded in a violent shudder?
In Pakistan, an Islamic state, a rape occurs in
every two-hour time; 50% of its women are physically
battered and 90% are mentally and verbally abused.
Its streets are unsafe; its people either have
too much, or do not have anything, and we derive
consolation that Delhi is the king city of rape;
or that America is ahead of all in rape cases.
Here people get killed in the mosques, and minorities
get subjected to inhuman harassment. Such forebodings
may not carry any scientific explanation but they
do mean something. In Shakespeare, strange voices
were heard and tremors were felt the night Macbeth
was to commit the murder. Animals, even ants and
birds, start acting strangely when a state of
disorder is created by the commission of acts
that are unnatural, and are non-permissible. Any
old man in your house will subscribe to such forebodings.
One old Hindu Sinsiasi (mystic) the other day
in Sacramento sagely interpreted the Pakistan
earthquake tragedy when he said, “ Pruhubu
is not on good terms with human beings. People
are in total violation of His commands of good
and evil, and hence His displeasure gets manifested
through such disasters as the recent earthquake
of October 8.”
THE REAL STRENGTH OF PEOPLE.
All is, however, not wrong. A majority of people
in Pakistan still firmly believes that God is
not happy with them, and is conscious of His displeasure.
This tragedy has sent to them a warning signal,
a sort of wake-up call, a strong jolt. It is,
therefore, a time of test and trial for the people
of Pakistan. Their common grief has united them
in sorrow. A Christian agency was the first to
reach Balakot and help its people. Heroic and
most selfless examples of helping others have
been seen almost in all affected areas. The earthquake
has also brought to the surface their inner goodness,
which had been lying buried in them in abundance.
In the railway accident at Ghotki, the simple
villagers set shining examples of sacrifice and
help of the highest quality of spiritual and moral
quality. There had been a few or sporadic instances
of theft and lootings. Otherwise dubbed as the
most corrupt people, 129 on the ranking list of
corruption, Pakistan’s simple rural rustics
have been a light of hope in an otherwise stagnant
atmosphere. Any rich country, including America,
would fail such a test of inner spiritual and
moral strength.
It is a time of patience and prayers. Allah mentions
Sabr, patience with great emphasis in the Qur’an,
some 90 times. “And surely We shall try
you with something of fear and hunger, and loss
of wealth and lives and crops; but give glad tidings
to the steadfast” (2:155) How the people
of Pakistan tackle this disaster, will make all
the difference. If they stay together; sink their
differences; make fresh vows that they are never
going to indulge in corrupt ways; they are never
going to let the terrorists, these merchants of
death, use their religion; they are going to start
afresh by just distributing all the money that
rightfully belongs to those who have suffered
irreparable losses. Definitely, this steadfastness
and patience has had in its folds the promised,
“glad tidings”.
At the same time, the cure to all these misfortunes
that have befallen our people does not lie in
just sitting still, or frowning at others. In
the words of Kipling, it lies in taking “a
large hoe and a shovel also, and dig till you
gently perspire”. Let us see a new Pakistan
emerging from the debris of the earthquake; and
let us make sure that like our Faith, all the
houses that we build now are built on firm foundations.
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