Publication

This paper uses the summer floods of 2010 as a lens to examine Pakistan's worsening economic, security and governance issues since the February 2008 elections. It explains the background to the inundations which displaced 20 million people, caused massive damage to infrastructure and threatened to suppress an already sluggish economic rebound from the world recession. The paper then reveals how the natural disaster exacerbated the multi-faceted challenges facing the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP)-led coalition. It also discusses the political impact of President Asif Ali Zardari's absence from the country at the time of the national calamity.