National Disaster Management Act, 2010 of Pakistan: A Review

Introduction: Pakistan has suffered from the worst ever natural and artificial disasters in its history since the start of this century. These disasters caused widespread loss of life, property, and resources; moreover, a high level of social and psychological imbalance was also experienced. The only law available in the country to handle disaster situations was response-oriented, and in the aftermath of the Kashmir earthquake in 2005, the government was forced to review its laws dealing with disasters. To provide a complete spectrum of Disaster Risk Management (DRM) at national level, National Disaster Management Ordinance (NDMO) was promulgated in 2006. NDMO was ratified by the parliament naming it as National Disaster Management Act (NDM Act), 2010 of Pakistan with the purpose to reduce the risks and manage the future disaster situations effectively and efficiently. The purpose of this paper is to review in detail the (NDM Act), 2010 of Pakistan and ascertain the limitations with a view to proffer necessary recommendations. Methods: The study is based on secondary data and detail review of NDM Act 2010, of Pakistan. Discussion: The detail study of NDM Act, 2010 reveals that the Act was either prepared in haste or by a team lacking the requisite expertise on the subject due to certain glaring ambiguities within the contents of various sections. Initially the Act appears to be reactive in nature as there is no mention of disaster risk reduction measures. Lack of accountability mechanism makes the implementation phase susceptible to deviant workplace behaviors. Details of financial allocations for the lower level disaster management authorities (district, union and town), who are the initial responders have been missed out. Conclusion: Owing to lack of political and economic constraints supplemented with corruption, the effectiveness of policies and plans formulated under the guidelines of NDM Act, 2010 will always remain doubtful. Thus, the early revision of NDM Act, 2010 of Pakistan is recommended.