Guided by opportunism, Pakistan made mockery of quake aid to Turkey

A recent visit by Pak Prime Minister, Shehbaz Sharif to earthquake stricken Turkey could not change the way the world is looking at the opportunist behavior of Pakistan. The coverage by international and domestic media has been focused on the callous dealing of the humanitarian aid issue by the Pak government. While the world rushed to help Turkey, Pakistani institutions and leaders were seen exploiting the calamity to mould international opinion in accordance with own agenda on contentious issues like Kashmir. Devoid of any earnest concern for the sufferers in Turkey, the earthquake relief exercise of Pakistan ended up being an opportunity for corruption and manipulation by its leaders and institutions.

The running of ‘aid operation’ was loaded with duplicity with the Prime Minister himself being at the centre of controversies. Sharif’s ill-timed fervor to visit Ankara just after the tragedy met a firm resistance from Turkish government which ‘advised’ Pakistan to postpone the visit to a suitable time later. The news of this rebuke gained currency as a popular joke in global as well as social media platforms. Then, there were protests by the common Pakistanis who ridiculed their Prime Minister for ignoring domestic economic crisis in his hurry to fly to Turkey. Nevertheless, Sharif could not hold his eagerness for long and embarked on the visit on February 16, 2022. In the meantime, there were domestic squabbles on Turkey’s cold shoulder to the Pak government. At last, the blame was fixed on Pak Information Minister Maryam Aurangzeb who had pre-maturely shared the news of Sharif’s planned visit from her social media account.

Adding to this was the fraudulence by Pakistani authorities in management of the aid mission. Turkish authorities reportedly alleged that the material sent by Pakistan was actually the aid provided by them to the country as flood relief in 2022. A Pakistani journalist Shahid Masood claimed that the relief items sent by Pakistan were the ones that Turkey sent to the Sindh province some

months ago. He elaborated that the Pak Officials had replaced the box outside, but forgot to change the ones inside.

The Pakistani Army also had its contribution in staging a PR show without any real desire to help the quake hit country. The Army proposed to establish a 30-bed field hospital with 17 doctors to help in the treatment of injured at Adana. However, deployment of the hospital was delayed on some pretext or the other. Finally, the chartered Pakistani plane meant for the purpose landed at Adana without the medical staff and equipment. Meanwhile, other countries led by UAE, India and Israel filled the void by quickly setting up their field hospitals. Later, another promised team of doctors and paramedics was not dispatched. Media criticism on the issue has propelled another round on local blame-game. However, it is unlikely that the civilian government would be able to hold the mighty Army accountable.

The sequence of events made it clear that Pakistan only wanted to exploit the Turkish plight for short term tactical gains. This was ironic since the government had extracted significant amount of resources from its hapless citizens for the cause. Without any formal orders by the government, state employees in Balochistan faced a fifty per cent deduction from their monthly salary in February on the ground that they are required to contribute to the relief. The affected employees protested against the steep cut arguing that economic crisis and historical inflation were already hitting them hard. There were also reports of corruption in managing the money collected for Turkish cause. In its pursuit of managing optics and international strategy simultaneously, Pakistan government has isolated itself not just globally but also from its own people.