Pakistan aid gap may offer US an opportunity to restore relations

Pakistan’s floods are producing some mind-boggling numbers: 3.5 million children are at risk of disease, and roughly one-fifth of the country is under water. 20 million people have been displaced from their homes by the ongoing deluge.

And some more disturbing numbers: the UN has asked for $460 million in emergency aid. To date, donor nations have only pledged 35 percent of that amount. A little less than half the donations – roughly $76 million – has come from the United States.

The floods in Pakistan have arguably failed to grip the western world in the way that the Haitian earthquake did, and some are asking why. Salman Ahmad fronts Pakistan’s popular rock band, Junoon. His family is watching the flooding in real time. ?Both my sisters, my brother and my mother are [in Pakistan,]? he says. ?My mother is deeply concerned that people can’t get food and medicine. It gave me pause listening to the tone of my mother’s voice.? Ahmad joins us to talk about his own charitable efforts for Pakistan.

Shuja Nawaz, director of the South Asia Center at the Atlantic Council, says that the flooding presents the United States with an opportunity to restore shaky relations with Pakistan. ?I think [short-term] aid does change minds very briefly,? he says. ?Longer-term aid and a longer-term relationship will change minds over the longer run.”