The first month of Labour Relief Campaign
Pakistan
The Labour
Relief Camp first camp was organized in Lahore on 1st August
2010 at Regal Chouck Lahore. Earlier on 25th July
2010, we decided to launch a Baluchistan appeal.
It stated, “Torrential rains
have unleashed flash floods in different parts of Baluchistan over the
few days. Water levies broke leaving the people exposed to flood water.
At least three villages in district Sibi have been destroyed. Houses,
live-stock such as cattle’s and goats, household goods, clothes, shoes
and other items have been destroyed. Residents of villages are currently
without drinkable water, food, shelter and in need of clothes. In
particular, the situation is dire for children and women and they are in
desperate need of food and clothing. Disease is spreading fast in the
areas affected due to lack of drinkable water. In particular, flu,
fever, diarrhea, cholera have been noted and are spreading. The
government’s response has made matters worse. They failed to act
immediately, leaving tens of thousands of people unaided. They came
after twenty four hours to the make-shift camps with paltry amount of
food bags to distribute. The gap between the food being distributed and
the large number of people desperate to eat led to fighting breaking out
making matters even worse for these desperate people. Rubina Baluch,
Women Secretary LPP Baluchistan, who is a resident of one of the
affected villages said, ‘there is absolutely nothing left here – food,
water, and clothing – and we are in desperate need of these’. At least,
10, 000 people are said to be in suffering in these grave conditions”.
Perhaps this was the first appeal by any political group in Pakistan to
ask people to help the victims of torrential rains in Baluchistan.
After an informal consultation with several social and political groups
in Lahore, we decided to set up the first camp. Already a group of 42
activists including 35 women belonging to Labour Education Foundation
were trapped in Kalam,
Swat valley. The flood in river Swat had flooded away all the bridges
and the road links were delinked from the rest of the country. They were
eventually evacuated by a military helicopter after 8 days of ordeal.
The
camp in Lahore was supported by many activists and on the first day, we
collected nearly 18,000 Rupees within two hours. Next day, it went up to
nearly 50,000.
A
LRC committee was reestablished with 8 members from eight different
organizations. They included, Cindy Kariaper,
Pakistan ForPalestine,
Farooq Tariq Pakistan Kissan Rabita Committee, Qalandar Memon Labour
Party Pakistan, Bushra Khaliq Women
Workers Help Line, Khalid Malik Labour
Education Foundation, Ammar Jan
Progressive Youth Front, Khaliq Shah
CADTM Pakistan and NiazKhan
National Trade Union Federation. The committee decided to meet at least
twice in a week to discuss all aspect of the campaign.
The
LRC committee agreed to campaign on two fronts, collecting funds for the
immediate relief and to change the priorities of the national budget demanding
a total no to repayment of foreign debts and reduce the military budget,
no cuts in development budget and no new taxes, no new loan, but grants
and aid.
On 7th August,
we issued a new appeal and here is a part that we wrote,
“Please
donate to Labour Relief Campaign to help people of Pakistan is facing
worst ever floods of its history. Torrential rains have unleashed flash
floods in different parts of the country since last three weeks. Water
levies broke leaving the people exposed to flood water. More than 12
million people have suffered due to these floods. More than 650,000
houses have collapsed, mainly in villages. Thousands of acres of crops
have been destroyed due to flood water. Houses, live-stock such as
cattle’s and goats, household goods, clothes, shoes and other items have
been destroyed. Residents of villages are currently without drinkable
water, food, shelter and in need of clothes”.
Five days later, the situation has even more worsened and it
was estimated
that over
20 million people are affected
by the flood by
then,
We wrote
on 12 August,
“The
flood is still on dangerous levels in several parts of Pakistan. The
numbers of people affected by the flood have crossed 20 million. More
torrential rains are forecast by the weather department. This is been
considered one of the most devastating flood in world history. The UN
has once again appealed for donations for Pakistan. But there has been a
very slow response internationally to help Pakistan in this period of
great devastation. After
destroying most of Khaiber Pukhtoonkhawa and
Southern Punjab, the water has now washed down the Indus River Valley,
causing a deluge in Sindh. The water has been powered by unusually
fierce monsoon rains that began in country’s northern areas some three
weeks ago. Roads, bridges and other infrastructure have given way,
overwhelming the government's ability to cope. At this point an
estimated 1,600 have been killed with another 5 million left homeless”.
Camps were set up in different parts of Pakistan including Rawalpindi, Mardan,
Hyderabad, Moro, Karachi, Sanghar, Layya andSibbi.
We
send the appeal to all our international friends and by then, the world
was awakening to the most catastrophic incident of Pakistan history.
In
one month, we have raised the
following
Lahore Rs. 654587
(cash)
Lahore Rs. 45000 (goods)
Rawalpindi Rs. 5000 (cash)
Hyderabad Rs. 184100
(cash)
Hyderabad Rs. 299550
Goods and medicine
Moro Rs. 766,190 (cash)
Karachi Rs. 450,000
(cash)
Karachi Rs. 250,000 (goods)
Mardan Rs. 70,000
(cash)
Sibbi did not
have information
Sanghar no information yet
Layya no
information yet
International appeal Rs. 371784
Confirmed commitments and information received
SAP Netherlands Euro 5000 (Rs.
550,000)
Olof Palme
International Center SEK 50,000 (Rs. 589,500)
Cultural Life Buoy campaign NOK 10,000 (Rs. 138,000)
Yasmeen USA US$
2000 (Rs.172,000)
Pakistanies in Denmark
US $
1000 (Rs. 85000)
A
total in cash raised from
Pakistan: Rs. 2,129,877
International Rs.
371,784
Commitments Rs.
1,534,500
Goods: Rs. 594550
Total cash, goods and commitments on 3 September 2010, 4,630,711 (US$
54478)
Apart from the relief campaign, we have also launched a political
campaign for non payment of foreign debts of Pakistan. We held our first
press conference in first week of August in Lahore and we said,
"Pakistan must refuse to pay the foreign debts and divert the amount
into the relief and rehabilitation of the flood affectees. It is high
time to change the priorities of the national budget and all those
suggestions to cut the development budget and spend on flood affectees
be stopped. There is an easy way out. Stop paying the debts owed to
International Finance Institutions. donor countries and clubs.
The
press conference was the first voice in Pakistan on the issue. we
contacted like minded groups and parties to raise the issue and the idea
was well received. Social and political groups in Islamabad met and
decided to take on the issue. In Lahore, on 29th August, LRC organized a
multi party conference to oppose the debt retirement and 28 political
parties, trade unions and social movements agreed to participate in this
campaign. on second September several hundreds marched to Islamabad to
demand non payment of foreign debts. One of the largest private
television channel Dunia took up the issue on a prime time talk show, "Dunia
Mery Aaghey" and invited one of the organizer of the demonstration to
put up the case. There is now a beginning of the awakening of some main
stream political parties to take up the isse.
Three more rallies will be organized to press for this demand. One such
rally will be held in Lahore on 19th September from GPO Chouck to Punjab
Assembly demanding an end of payments of debts while people are in
danger of dying in the aftermath of the flood. In this campaign, we
have got the material support of OXFAM.
Where the money spent?
We
had decided to spend the amount on flood victims on selected areas where
we have local teams to deal the question of distribution in more
organsied manner and also to the most needy ones. The initial three
areas selected were Union Council Tully in Sibbi district of
Baluchistan, Pir Sabaq union council of district Noshehra of Khaber
Pukhtoonkhawa and Southern part of Punjab. We held in food items,
kitchen items and construction material in two areas, while we were
unable to do anything in Saraiki area. Lately, LRC has send amount to
Hyderabad jamshoro, Moro and Thatha area of Sindh through Sindh Labour
Relief Committee. The local teams in Baluchistan reported wide spread
disruption in food item distribution and they had to take special
measures to avoid that. they issue tokens of particular food basket
after conducting surveys of three villages and then asked them to
collect food from a special place designated for collection the food
items. Same process was carried out in Pir Sabaq area where distribution
of food items and construction material was done with a very disciplined
manner. The main reason of smooth distribution was our local committees
which included political and trade unions activists.
In
Hyderabad jamshoro, we set up medical camps and distributed medicines
through our doctors association. Here in Hyderabad, we were jointly
working with Communist Party Pakistan, Aadersh, A Sindhi literary
magazine. In Moro, our local relief committee was formed in association
with local traders and trade unions. There were the most successful in
collecting amount and good from an area which was itself effected.
Through joint effort, they have won the sympathies of many in the city
and are the main distribution group of the area. Several other
organizations have contacted and asked help in distribution to the flood
affectees of Moro and Dadu district. In Karachi, SRLC set up four camps
and sent four trucks of good to Moro and at present busy in Thatha
district to help the flood victims who are sleeping on roads and
schools.
The International Response to LRC appeal
This
was to give you some idea of our activity during the first month of our
relief work. Most of the amount collected in Pakistan are from ordinary
people. They have donated us generously. BY setting up camps and
distributing aid to flood victims in some selected areas, we have tried
to counter the influence of the right wing forces particularly the
religious fundamentalists groups. Several hundreds activists of LRC are
busy in collecting funds locally and we are also encouraged by different
responses from abroad. Political groups associated with Fourth
International in several countries particularly in Netherlands and
England have send us amount already, while several individual and Left
groups efforts in US have brought some cash to the relief. From Sweden,
we have already received information of 50,000 Swedish SKR and in
Norway, an initiative by actor Toni Usman for a theater show on 19
September has already won support of Norway artist association with
leading actors of Norway taking part voluntarily to help the campaign.
In Australia, Socialist Alliance is helping to collect funds and APHEDA,
the official Australian trade unions international assistance is
collecting funds for LRC.
We
had the great arrival of South Asians at Lahore relief camp to collect
funds from Pakistanis. Social and peace activists from India,
Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka came to Lahore and brought some amount
from their own countries and contributed to LRC funds. They have brought
with this a consciousness of South Asian solidarity in real terms.
We appeal to all our
international friends to continue collecting funds for our future
planned aid and political activities. Apart from the campaign on debts,
we have decided to organize peasant rallies in Sindh and Punjab to
demand land rights and end of feudalism.
LABOUR RELIEF CAMPAIGN’S ACTIVITIES IN
UNION COUNCIL PIR SABAQ
SITUATION OF UNION
COUNCIL PIR SABAQ AFTER THE DEVESTATING FLOODS:
by Farooq
Ahmed(31\08\10)
Union Council Pir Sabaq falls under
district Nowshehra. Pir Sabaq in on one side of River Kabul and
Nowshehra is on the other. Population of both areas can easily be seen
from the river, but as there is no bridge to connect both areas the
total distance to be covered from Nowshehra to reach Pir Sabaq is about
22 km via an unmetalled bumpy so called ‘road’. This is why the teams
are finding it difficult to access the area of Pir Sabaq for relief
activities. It was once an area where happy labors and workers were
dwelling. Now it give a picture of the ruins of Mohenjo-Daro, with smell
everywhere and the mud built houses turned into rubble.
Up till now not even a single government
official has bothered to pay a visit to this area. The provincial
government is blaming the federal government and federal government is
blaming the provincial. Various donor organizations are working in the
area but no team from government has been seen there until now nor there
any of their relief camps.
Labor Relief Campaign (LRC) has up till
now distributed food and other items worth 305000. In which around 70000
was raised at provincial level and about 235000 was sent from Lahore.
LRC has hired a godown for this purpose where they store the items and
it also helps in making the process of distribution of items more
efficient. A list has been prepared of the affectees and they have been
issued a token. They can show their token at the godown and receive
their items. Special care has been taken in registering the victims so
that no victim is registered twice and the items reach the deserving
people. Victims have appreciated the method use by LRC.
LRC and Swiss Labor Assistance, which is an organization
based in Switzerland, have together completed a survey of Pir Sabaq. A
survey of 470 houses has been completed. Out of 470 around 235 are
completely destroyed and the rest have partial damages. 470 houses will
receive a tool kit which contains
hand barrow, hammers, nails,
pick axe, shovel and ‘Gantary’
They will use this kit to remove the rubble of their houses. After this
they will be provided with shelter. For this work Swiss Labor Assistance
has hired two local people.
250,000 Displace,70% Are Women & Children, worst Human
Crisis in Thatta District.
By Nasir Mansoor
(31\08\10)
On
Saturday I was here in Makli city (one of the oldest necropolises of
world) 6 Km from Thatta city, extreme south of the country near Arabian
Sea, nearly 250,000 have been poured in and around Makli city(its own
population is 20,000) for last five days from all areas of the Thatta
district,90 km from Karachi. Almost 50% of the 1.6 million population of
the district has been displaced at the moment. The district is mostly
coastal area where Indus river fall into Arabian Sea. There all 9 sub
divisions of the district is inundated by the flood. I was accompanied
with Comrade Sherbaz of Progressive youth Front, Jabbar
Khaskhaili(Labour Party Pakistan), Naseem Haider(Pakistan Steel
Democratic Workers Union) and Comrade Ali Ahmed (LPP,Thatta)
Majority of displaced are without shelter ,food, water and medicine.
Situation is very worst and depressing, government and other relief
bodies are nowhere, hundreds of thousand women and children have been
crying for immediate help. They are in open space everywhere in
scorching heat, thousands have taken refuge in historic grave yard of
Makli including in tombs of nobles .
Sindh Labour Relief Committee(SLRC) have started some immediate relief
to the needy but challenge is larger than our capacity, human
catastrophe is looming large and every passing hour has been making life
unbearable for the displaced hundreds of thousands especially for women
and children.
SLRC are going to establish relief camp in Makli for 30 families from
this week.
The situation is very volatile, thousands have protested against army
and administration on main road on Friday and bitterness has been
growing day by day.
SLCR have send three consignment of food, clothes and medicine to Moro
in last week period, five comrades Zehra Akber (Home Based Women Workers
Federation), Shehla Rizwan(Labour Party Pakistan , Irfana Jabbar(Home
Based Women Bangle Workers Union), Munawer and Mukhtiar Raho (LPP) have
been in Moro for three days in Moro for relief work.
SLRC have given shelter to 120 families from Jaffarabad in Hub
Balochistan through National Trade Union Federation(NTUF) in seven
quarters of Workers Welfare Board and committed to supply food and
medicine to flood victims.
Some amount is in our hand for food purchase for Moro camps which we
have already pledged so in this situation we immediately require your
intervention to cope the situation in Thatta district, please act now.
Labour Relief Campaign update:
Farooq
Tariq (19\08\10)
Several camps have been set up in different parts of Pakistan by member
organizations of Labour Relief Campaign. They
are now collecting funds in Karachi, Moro, Layya, Rawalpindi, Sibbi,
Lahore, Murdan and Hyderabad. From Lahore, the LRC has sent Rupees
220,000 to Sibbi in Baluchsitan and 110,000 to Pir Sabaq in Noshera.
Here, committees of local affectees and members of LRC are organizing
the relief efforts.
We
have collected in Lahore and through donations directly to the bank
account, an amount of 433,000 and we are busy in sending the rest to the
areas mentioned above. 8 members committee meeting of LRC decided to
stick to few areas where we have local people to help in relief goods
distribution. The LRC will concentrate on Layya, Rajan Pur, Sibbi and
Noshehra and Charsada. While, the Sindh Labour Relief Committee will
help in different parts of Sindh.
The
LRC committee decided to hold an all parties conference to discuss the
negligence of the government in providing timely warnings and support to
the flood affected areas. It also decided to speed up the campaign for
the cancelation of Pakistan debt.
The
LRC paid special thanks to 10 Indian social activists who brought 25400
Indian Rupees donation and helped to raise funds in Regal Chouck Lahore.
The
LRC comprised of 8 organization including Women Workers Help Line,
Labour Education Foundation, Pakistan Kissan Rabita Committee, CATDM
Pakistan, Progressive Youth Front, Labour Party Pakistan, National Trade
Union Federation and
Pakistan For Palestine.
Appeal issued on August 12, 2020
It is over
20 million people affected by the flood now
The flood
is still on dangerous levels in several parts of Pakistan. The numbers
of people effected by the flood have crossed 20 million. More torrential
rains are forecast by the weather department. This is been considered
one of the most devastating flood in world history. The UN has once
again appealed for donations for Pakistan. But there has been a very
slow response internationally to help Pakistan in this period of great
devastation.
After
destroying most of Khaiber Pukhtoonkhawa and Southern Punjab, the water
has now washed down the Indus River Valley, causing a deluge in Sindh.
The water has been powered by unusually fierce monsoon rains that began
in country’s northern areas some three weeks ago.
Roads, bridges and other infrastructure have given way, overwhelming the
government's ability to cope. At this point an estimated 1,600 have been
killed with another 5 million left homeless.
The Labour
Relief Campaign (LRC), launched in October 2005 after an earthquake
killed nearly 100,000, has put up relief camps in several parts of
Pakistan. The LRC springs into action whenever there is an emergency
situation. Member organizations include Progressive Youth Front, Women
Workers Help Line, Labour Education Foundation, National Trade Union
Federation, CADTM Pakistan, Labour Party Pakistan, Pakistan For
Palestine and Pakistan Kissan Rabita Committee. Currently the Lahore
camp at Regal Chouck is raising thousands of rupees every day in aid.
Here is
report of a union council in Khaiber Pukhtoon Khawa province by a team
of four LRC members led by Farooq Ahmad, member of the federal executive
committee, Labour Party Pakistan:
On 29 July
Pir Sabaq, a Union Council of Nowshehra district, with a population of
more than 34,000, is completely destroyed by the recent flood waters. A
tent city of more than 1,000 tents has been established but most of the
people are still forced to live in homes partially destroyed by the
flood. This can lead to a major building collapsing any time, resulting
in the further loss of lives.
In
addition to losing their homes most people found their household items
have been swept away. They have lost their cattle and goats as well.
People without anything to eat, drink or wear.
Pir Sabaq
is mainly a town of working-class people who work in marble or
stone-crushing factories, or in the construction sector or agriculture
sectors. When a LRC team visited yesterday, local people told about how
water more than 14 feet high reached the town’s roof tops. Since the
flood came around 4 a.m., while people were sleeping in the comfort of
their homes, there was no chance to save anything but their lives.
The owners
of small tourist boats did their best to help save lives of common
people. By
contrast, when army helicopters arrived at the scene, they began
evacuating the families of military men and residents of the big houses.
People immediately saw the way the army discriminated about who they
aided. People told the LRC team that many stranded on the roof tops of
their houses waved their hands in the air when they saw the army
helicopters coming, but it was of no use.
People
have also blamed the government for failing to inform them on time about
the danger of the flood. Some also charged that water was allowed to
flow from the Warsik dam in order to save the nearby military camps.
The LRC
team saw the house of Pervaiz Lala, general secretary of LPP in Pir
Sabaq. It, like the majority, was completely destroyed; he and his
family is now homeless. He told them the people did not eat for almost
three days after the flood. Not a single governmental official has
visited the area so far. The information minister of KP province, Mian
Iftikhar Hussain, stated in clear terms that the provincial government
cannot do anything to help people in this disaster. however two days
before an NGO started providing some food.
There is
still water all over Pir Sabaq. A bad smell is everywhere and no clean
drinking water is available. The children are suffering from diarrhea
and skin rashes. The local government dispensary, the only medical
facility for the townspeople, has been totally destroyed. In this
environment people are haunted by the possibility of diseases being
spread.
People now
are in need of: food items like cooking oil, wheat flour, milk, sugar,
clean drinking water, vegetables, clothes, tents, cooking utensils and
medicine.
Here is an
appeal we launched on 7th August that gives you some more
information and the ways to help the campaign.
Appeal issued on August 7, 2020
More than 12 million people suffering from floods in Pakistan
Please donate to Labour Relief Campaign to help people of Pakistan is
facing worst ever floods of its history. Torrential rains have unleashed
flash floods in different parts of the country since last three weeks.
Water levies broke leaving the people exposed to flood water.
More than 12 million people have suffered due to these floods. More than
650,000 houses have collapsed, mainly in villages.
Thousands of acres of crops have been destroyed due to flood water.
Houses, live-stock such as cattle’s and goats, household goods, clothes,
shoes and other items have been destroyed. Residents of villages are
currently without drinkable water, food, shelter and in need of
clothes.
In particular, the situation is dire for children and women and they are
in desperate need of food and clothing. Disease is spreading fast in the
areas affected due to lack of drinkable water. In particular, flu,
fever, diarrhea, cholera have been noted and are spreading.
The government’s response has made matters worse. They failed to act
immediately, leaving tens of thousands of people unaided. They came
after twenty four hours to the make-shift camps with paltry amount of
food bags to distribute. The gap between the food being distributed and
the large number of people desperate to eat led to fighting breaking out
making matters even worse for these desperate people.
Despite the fact that there is very little coverage in the media, the
fact remains that the situation in Baluchistan is just as bad as in
Khyber-Pakhtoonkhwa and western and southern Punjab. As usual, also,
they are not at the top of the government's priority list.
Situation is turning out to be worse with heavy rains started since last
night in Khyber-Pakhtoonkhwa province.
The Labour Education Foundation, Labour Party of Pakistan, National
Trade Union Federation, Women Workers Help Line and Progressive Youth
Front have set up Labour Flood Relief Camps in Lahore and so far have
collected more than 300,000 rupees. Rs. 110,000 have already been sent
to Baluchistan and more than 200,000 are on way to Southern Punjab to
help flood victims.
We appeal our friends and organizations in Pakistan and abroad for
donations of a monetary kind or in the form of drinking water, clothes
(new), shoes, medicine.
For further information please contact:
Khalid Mahmood
Director
Labour Education Foundation
Ground Floor, 25-A Davis Road,
Lahore, Pakistan.
Email:
khalid@lef.org.pk
mailto:
khalid@lef.org.pk
Tel: 0092 42 6303808, 0092 42 6315162, Fax: 0092 42 6271149
Mobile: 0092 321 9402322
If you wish to transfer funds, below are details of
the account for sending money to the LRC.
A/C Title: Labour Education Foundation
A/C Number: 01801876
Route:
Please advise and pay to Citi Bank, New York, USA Swift CITI US 33 for
onward transfer to BANK ALFALAH LTD., KARACHI, PAKISTAN A/C No. 36087144
and for final transfer to BANK ALFALAH LTD., LDA PLAZA, KASHMIR ROAD,
LAHORE, PAKISTAN Swift: ALFHPKKALDA for A/C No. 01801876 OF LABOUR
EDUCATION FOUNDATION.
