Pakistan’s President has provoked outrage by taking a tour of Europe with his son while thousands die in the floods at home. Isabel Villiers reports
Pakistan’s worst monsoon rains continue, and thousands are now dead, many more trapped, surrounded by floods. The images on TV over here show vast expanses of putrid water where riverbanks have spilled, chasing families from their homes, swallowing crops, destroying livelihoods.
In one of Pakistan’s worst affected flooded areas around Peshawar, people are very angry. They claim their privacy, their culture has been violated as women and children have been forced to sleep in the streets and wash in a contaminated mix of water, mud, human and animal faeces.
What makes people here most upset is that their President, Asif Zardari, has abandoned them in their hour of need. As Rahim Saranjan, an MBA student from Peshawar says: ‘People in general are very sad and now they are actually asking God — why is this happening to us? We are fighting a war against terrorism but where is the government at a time when we need it most? It is a sad situation.’
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