Anonymous and forgotten

That is the cycle of the news in Pakistan that citizens had to be hardened tragedy from the headlines is supplanted by horror; one outrage follows another in the grim progression of this country story. That this process is not quite the citizenry fully insensitive has left is evident in the storm of protest that has erupted after the assassination of Malalas Yousufzai try. But the flurry of quickly changing headings also means that the citizenry is caught in what tragedies are rarely resolved issues or immediate — or treated, they just drop out of the collective consciousness. Nowhere is this clearer than in the situation of nearly five million people in parts of Sindh and Balochistan who were affected by the devastating flooding just a few weeks ago, some of them for the third year in a row pattern. As long as they are in desperate need, she goes as far as the citizenry as a whole remain anonymous and voiceless, and so there is hardly any pressure on State or society to intervene in a meaningful way.

Their plight is desperate indeed. According to the world food programme are more than a million people in the five worst-hit districts need food aid, while hundreds of thousands of people living in temporary camps or just under tarpaulins, waiting for the waters to subside. If the UN by a call for donations at the weekend, said the Office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs that people in some areas are still being rescued by boat. And even after the waters recede, most of these people need assistance for the reconstruction of devastated lives and livelihoods, given the fact that with some 3800 square kilometres of land are still inundated, the prospects for the planting of the crop Rabi (which is sown in winter) external look. The focus should return to this silent millions, and efforts intensified to appease their misery. Reportedly, the main challenges for expanding the response funding gaps and access. While the average citizen might not do much about the last may, the former still within control.