Year in Review 2005 - Reeling from the South Asian earthquake

In the last quarter of the year, a powerful earthquake measuring 7.6 on the Richter scale ripped through northern Pakistan and Pakistani-administered Kashmir, with an epicentre about 100 km northeast of the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS). Pakistan sustained the heaviest death toll and destruction in its 58-year history after the 8 October earthquake, which devastated an extended area of about 28,000 sq km. More than 80,000 people were killed and over 100,000 were injured while nearly 4 million people were rendered homeless just weeks before the start of the bitter Himalayan winter. At the end of 2005, almost three months on, nearly 2 million quake survivors were living in tents below the snowline, 250,000 were in organised camps and another 400,000 were living in temporary shelters constructed at higher altitude, said Jan Vandemootele, the UN's Humanitarian Coordinator in the country. The international donor response to the disaster was poor, having a direct impact on the initial relief effort and making reconstruction of housing and infrastructure in the quake zone uncertain. Pakistan in 2005 saw several positive developments in economic growth, women’s rights, local governance and increased budgetary allocation for health and education services. But many challenges remain: rising inflation, high rates of unemployment and poverty, lack of progress on human rights, regional disparities and food insecurity. A leading national child rights watchdog, the Society for the Protection of the Rights of the Child (SPARC), in its annual report released in May, pointed to a substantial increase in the number of working children in the country. The number of economically active children has soared from about 3.3 million in 1996 to an estimated 8 million minors currently working across the South Asian state, with almost two-thirds employed full-time, the SPARC report read. "The basic rights of the children - education, health and protection are being grossly violated in the form of child labour in a wide range of sectors that are often hazardous and difficult to access," Zarina Jillani, a child rights activist working with SPARC, said in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad. Poverty remained a huge problem, with over 65 percent of the country’s population estimated to be living on or below the $2-per-day poverty line. Dr Zaffar Moeen Nasir, an economist at the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE) says poverty can only be tackled by continued and sustainable growth. "With a sustainable growth rate and reduction in the rate of inflation and unemployment - it will then take seven to 10 years to help translate the real benefits of growth to the common man, thus reducing poverty. There is no shortcut," Nasir explained. Another growing social problem is the estimated 4 million drug abusers, of whom some 500,000 inject. Through 2005, repeated pleas were made for more international technical and financial support for Pakistan to stem the flow of heroin from neighbouring Afghanistan - the world’s top illicit opium producer. Pakistani women's struggle for their rights continued through 2005 inside courts and legislatures and on the streets through demonstrations. Women’s rights activists called for more “political will” on the part of political parties and legislatures to make a real change in the miserable lives of women. "These parties make pledges while contesting elections, but after that their priorities change, that's why we are lagging behind in our struggle," Nuzhat Shirin, coordinator of the Sindh chapter of the women's rights and advocacy organisation, Aurat Foundation, noted. In 2005, more than 449,000 Afghan refugees returned from Pakistan under the repatriation assistance programme of the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), making it the second highest annual number since the programme started in 2002. Nearly 1.6 million Afghans returned home in 2002, the first full year of the repatriation programme. Challenges in 2006 The most immediate humanitarian challenge in 2006 is to get quake survivors through the severe Himalayan winter months. The rebuilding and rehabilitation phase for well over 3 million quake-affected people will prove a daunting task, with the reconstruction of thousands of homes, schools, hospitals, and other public infrastructure, relief workers say. Another issue in 2006 will be to come up with a solution to the depleting capacity of existing reservoirs already under pressure to meet the growing needs for water. The authorities are fully aware of the problem at hand and the government has launched a countrywide public awareness campaign about the imminent water crisis and the need to build more water reservoirs. However, inter-provincial political differences over the location of dams are so far making it hard to finalise plans. The security situation in Pakistan's southern mineral-rich Balochistan province could also worsen in 2006, with a limited military operation already under way in the northern parts of the province said to be dealing with bandits, who regularly targeted telephone exchanges, railway lines and electricity supply lines over the past year. The coming year will also be crucial in deciding the future of Afghans living in Pakistan, as the current repatriation agreement between Islamabad, Kabul and the UN refugee agency ends in December 2006.