Our politicians, TV anchors and the combined chorus of NGOs and local welfare organisations are shouting hoarse that something has to be done for the 20 million people run over like sands in recent rush of rivers but the government refuses to make any headway on planning rehabilitation of these people. As of now, the government has not made public any plans on how we are to fight this catastrophe, and another one like this in case it recurs again. There is no serious thinking, not even thinking in jest, on how the battered economy is to be restored either. The governance for general public is going from worse to worst. Same childish mistakes are being made over and over with no understanding of the fact that a setback this colossal would not get settled in days. It requires the sort of serious, dedicated planning and an honesty of purpose in execution that is just not there. It makes one wonder if present federal government even has the capability to handle a crisis of this magnitude and scale? Most people would simply shrug shoulders in negative. I am also quite convinced that the government in Islamabad has no clue of the superior management techniques required for the job. I think its core team lacks even the basic knowledge of management tools needed to tackle an ask as big as this. So instead of playing ducks and drakes for too long defending their wrongs, they should simply resort to allowing help to help and take up the offer of forming a national government consisting of all political parties to handle this gigantic task. That would also expose those that sit back in their drawing rooms and do nothing but criticize and laugh. It would also expose the capability, or lack of it, of the allies that speak only of their own local affairs while claiming to be national in perspective. It would also settle for now those that are themselves sitting abroad but singing songs of revolutions. Let this flood be a cleansing device that washes away all the dirt from our politics, once and for all. -AMJAD H. MIRZA, Lahore, September 18.