Institutional Learning to Manage the Natural Disasters in Pakistan and India

Abstract

This paper seeks to review, compare, and descriptively analyze the institutionalization and organization of the Disaster Management System (DMS) in Pakistan and India. This article aims to study the effectiveness and efficacy of the DMS in both countries by looking at the situation through depoliticized prisms.  Through the comparative method documentary analysis, the paper identifies the common links between strengths and weaknesses in both countries and suggests recommendations for improving the available mechanisms to dissuade the effects of natural disasters across borders. The introduction describes DMS in Pakistan and India by reporting the risk profiles of both countries followed by the organization and institutionalization at different tiers of the government.  The available precedents show signs of cooperation in minimizing the damage caused by post-natural disasters in Pakistan and India. The results reveal that there have been difficult phases where both countries helped each other in calamities. After the Gujrat earthquake in 2001, the Pakistani military provided significant aid to India which facilitated the first recent conversation between the two nations since a military coup in Pakistan two years prior. This support by Pakistan led to the Agra Summit five months between the two archrivals and later when a powerful earthquake struck both India and Pakistan in October 2005, efforts were made by the Indian side to provide relief and rescues. These results suggest possible actionable policy recommendations for both countries to minimize the effects of natural disasters and seek cooperation at the institutional level.