Pakistanis desperate to get out of flooded villages threw themselves at helicopters today as more heavy rain was expected to intensify both suffering and anger with the government.
President Asif Ali Zardari may have made the biggest political mistake of his career by leaving for visits to Paris and London during the worst floods in 80 years.
More than 1,600 people have been killed and 12 million affected. Pakistan’s agriculture-based economy, heavily dependent on foreign aid, has suffered a major blow.
Heavy rains are expected to lash the country again raising the prospect that more houses and crops will be swept away.
In the town of Muzaffargarh, near where rivers bloated with rain from as far away as Afghanistan and India merge with the Indus to flow south to the sea, army helicopters dropped packets of rice to people who had moved to higher ground to a cemetery.
Some latched on to helicopter skids as the aircraft took off. An elderly man fought his way inside one. He looked down and wept.
“Things are getting worse. It’s raining again. That’s hampering our relief work,” said UN World Food Programme spokesman Amjad Jamal.
Districts in southern Sindh province were on high alert today as the water surged down the Indus river basin.
The floods have roared down from the north to the agricultural heartland of Punjab to Sindh along a trail more than 1,000km long.
Sindh is home to Pakistan’s biggest city and commercial hub, Karachi, but the floods are expected to hit rural areas.
At least four districts in Sindh were on high alert.
UN officials said more than 500,000 people had been evacuated in Sindh, where those in low-lying areas near the Indus are most vulnerable.
Flooding was also taking a toll over the border in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir, where rain was hampering rescue and relief efforts. Flash floods have killed at least 132 people in the Himalayan region of Ladakh.
Responding to criticism of his absence, Zardari said the prime minister was capable of dealing with the crisis.
“There is a chief executive at home ... The parliament is in session, the Senate is in session, it’s the prime minister’s responsibility and he’s fulfilling his responsibility,” Zardari told the BBC’s Newsnight.
Today, the president was to address Britain’s Pakistani community after talks with Prime Minister David Cameron in which the two leaders agreed to do more to fight Islamist militancy.
Many Pakistanis were already critical of Zardari’s performance. Militants still pose a security threat despite offensives, poverty is widespread and corruption is rampant.
Although Zardari this year handed most of his powers to Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani, he still wields influence, and his departure to Europe as parts of Pakistan were submerged further eroded faith in the government.
The military, with which Zardari has had differences, has ruled Pakistan for more than half of its history. It has spearheaded relief efforts, reinforcing the view that civilian governments cannot handle major crises.
But analysts do not expect the army to make a grab for power.
It would rather play a behind the scenes role while the government takes the heat for the country’s failures. The military also remains too preoccupied with Taliban insurgents to orchestrate a takeover.
Key ally Washington would not want to see an unstable Pakistan as it leans on the country to help its campaign against Taliban militants in neighbouring Afghanistan.
Food supplies are becoming a serious issue. In many areas, drinking water wells are also full of mud.
“Our houses have been fully submerged. I kept putting my kid’s toys in higher places in my house to protect them from water,” said Rana Abdul Razzak, an engineer at a power station where about 100 flood victims had taken refuge on a roof.
“But I lost everything. I cannot tell you how bad it was to see those toys floating in the water.
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