Khawaja Zaheer Ahmed - PDMA

after 20 months of its constitution in February 2009 to reflect on
Cabinet Division’s proposal about NDMA’s attachment with or
without merger with the ERC and resolved to meet again after two
weeks has yet to re-convene. The Provincial and District Disaster
Management Authorities were also likewise notified in pursuance of
2006 Ordinance, though Provincial and District Disaster
Management Plans were formulated, with minimal intellectual
inputs sans a couple of exceptions. It was also noted that the
defacto NDMC, thus constituted held three meetings on 5 th March,
2007, 3 rd January, 2009 and 19 th August, 2010 but none of the
Provincial Commissions met except the KP Commission on 5 th
May, 2009; the FATA and AJK Commissions also met once on 8 th
June, 2009 and 16 th November 2009, respectively. The urgency or
importance attached to a series of extraordinary legislative
initiatives was missing in the entire executive branch! Further, it
was noted that:-
i) In his depositions relating to formulations listed against serial
number 1, 2 and 12 in Para 1 of this Report, the Chairman
NDMA, who had vast and rich experience of conducting
2005 earthquake operations, confirmed holding of pre-
monsoon inter-agency preparatory consultation session on
28 th June, 2010, attended by 53 senior officials and key
stakeholders from Provincial & Federal Governments
(except the Punjab) besides USAID, JICA and OXFAM. After
review of the IRSA’s report on water availability and the
Monsoon forecast by Flood Forecasting Division of the
Pakistan Meteorology Department, the NDMA Chief
expressed his satisfaction about the state of preparedness of
three PDMAs and other departmental arrangements in
following words: ‘....overall objective of the conference was
Page 115 of 211