Saraikis in Pakistan remain ignored in flood crisis
Courtesy: One India
Amin Anjum, a senior journalist and president of the press club of Fazilpur, says that more than 90 per cent of the area of Rajanpur district is still inundated by floodwaters coming from Balochistan, and 80 per cent of the houses are fully or partially damaged, thousands of cattle perished, goods and wheat stored by the farmers have been washed away in flood. Sadly, the flood-affected persons are still forced to live under the open sky. They have been deprived of food and drinking water. Dera Ghazi Khan District suffers the worst.
Ironically, the data released by the Punjab Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) on September 2, 2022, on flood situation says, only 24 per cent of the total (12318 square kilometers) area of Rajanpur district has been affected by floods, 11.55 per cent of the total (2 million) population is affected and only 15 per cent of the total (218,000) houses have been completely or partially destroyed. While the Punjab Disaster Management Authority also presented a wrong flood situation report saying that all the flood-affected people and livestock have not only been rescued to flood relief camps by the Punjab government but they are also provided with daily (three meals a day) food and no flood-affected person or family is sitting under the open sky.
However, the ground realities of Rajanpur and Dera Ghazi Khan districts are completely different. In Rajanpur district, there are thousands of families who have not received any relief from the government or NGOs and are waiting for help under the open sky because their houses and all their belongings have been damaged in the flood.
Pakistan has been trying hard to change Saraiki national identity by putting them under constant financial, political and social stress all the time.
The fact of the matter is that the Punjab Disaster Management Authority, indeed under the control of Punjabis, has the least concern for non-Punjabi communities existing in the two districts of Saraiki, Rajanpur and Dera Ghazi Khan which are the worst affected by the flood.
In fact, the government of Pakistan, the government of Punjab, and the national media are on the same page in the case of Saraiki origin and all of them are deliberately ignoring Saraiki origin.
Pakistan floods claim 1,325 lives
Qamar Zaman Kaira, the advisor to the coalition government for the Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan affairs, after visiting the flood relief camp did not even mention the name of Saraiki origin in his press meeting in Islamabad. On top of it, Federal Ministers Sherry Rehman and Ahsan Iqbal, also in their press meeting did not mention the destruction caused by floods in the two districts of Saraiki habitats, while mentioning Sindh, Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces and Special Area Gilgit-Baltistan.
In fact, the government of Pakistan and the government of Punjab have divided Saraiki habitats between South Punjab and Saraiki. The main reason to give step-motherly treatment to Sarakis is that the former state of Multan and Bahawalpur and the districts of Bakhar, Mianwali, Khushab, Jhang, Dera Ismail Khan, Tank have Saraiki nationality and not Punjabi. Pakistan has been trying hard to change Saraiki national identity by putting them under constant financial, political and social stress all the time.
Saraiki nationalists have been forced to accept the creation of a South Punjab secretariat as an alternative to the demand of Saraikistan province. But Sariaikis wanted a province comprising 21 districts based on shared language, culture and history including Tank and Dera Ismail Khan. Only six districts in Southern Punjab namely Multan, Lodhran, Dera Ghazi Khan, Rajanpur, Muzaffar Garh and Leiah/Layyah where Saraiki origin commands a clear majority of the population.
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