UN Secretary General Visit To Pakistan, Urges support for flood-hit Pakistan: UN Chief
I have never seen climate carnage on the scale of the floods here in Pakistan. UN CHIEF
ISLAMABAD, Sept 10 (Reuters) – I have never seen climate carnage on the scale of the floods here in Pakistan. As our planet continues to warm, all countries will increasingly suffer losses and damage from climate beyond their capacity to adapt. This is a global crisis. It demands a global response. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres visited several areas of Pakistan ravaged by floods, calling for increased global financial support at the end of a two-day trip aimed at raising awareness of the disaster. Record monsoon rains and glacier melt in northern mountains have triggered floods that have killed more than 1,600 people, sweeping away houses, roads, railway tracks, bridges, livestock and crops. Pakistan estimates the damage at $30 billion, and both the government and Guterres have blamed the flooding on climate change. This is our base case and every week new data is taking up the figure higher. “Today it’s Pakistan, tomorrow it could be your country wherever you live. This is a global crisis … it requires a global response,” Guterres told a news conference at the end of his visit. Huge areas of the country are still under water and hundreds of thousands of people have been forced from their homes. The government says the lives of nearly 33 million people have been disrupted. Residents and health workers are becoming concerned about rising numbers of children suffering from gastroenteritis and other illnesses, with many forced to drink contaminated flood water. After flying over vast swathes of inundated land, Guterres met people displaced by flooding in southern Pakistan. “Unimaginable,” he said as he surveyed the devastation from the air, seated next to Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, in footage shared by the country’s information minister. Speaking to reporters later in the southern city of Karachi, Guterres said the international community needed to do more to help countries hit hardest by the effects of climate change, starting with Pakistan.(Source: Reuters)
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Humanitarian,
Angelina Jolie visits Pakistan flood victims, calls for international aid
Hollywood star and humanitarian Angelina Jolie has said the flood disaster in Pakistan should be a “wake-up call” for the world regarding climate change, calling for more international aid after meeting with victims. Pakistan has been lashed by unprecedented monsoon downpours that flooded a third of the country — an area the size of the United Kingdom — and killed nearly 1,600 people, according to the latest government figures. More than seven million people have been displaced, many living in makeshift tents without protection from mosquitoes, and often with little access to clean drinking water or washing facilities. “’I’ve never seen anything like this,” said Jolie, who previously visited Pakistan to meet the victims of the devastating 2010 floods and a deadly 2005 earthquake, in footage released on Thursday. “I am absolutely with you in pushing the international community to do more… I think this is a real wake-up call to the world about where we are at,” she told a meeting of civil and military officials in the capital Islamabad. “Climate change is not only real and it’s not only coming, it’s very much here.” Jolie, who represents the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), visited southern Sindh province, one of the worst-affected areas, where she met with displaced flood victims living in camps.The United Nations has warned of a “second disaster” from diseases such as dengue, malaria, cholera and diarrhea, as well as from malnutrition.“I have been speaking to people and thinking that if enough aid doesn’t come, they won’t be here in the next few weeks, they won’t make it,” said Jolie.
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Pakistan to receive $1.7b from World Bank in flood relief assistance
September 22, 2022. Web Desk
Martin Raiser, the World Bank’s Regional Vice President for South Asia, said the bank plans to provide up to $ 1.7 billion in flood-related assistance through existing and upcoming projects.
On Thursday [September 22], Martin Raiser led a delegation to meet with Federal Minister of Power Engr Khurram Dastgir Khan in Islamabad. The minister informed the WB’s vice president about Pakistan’s unprecedented flood destruction. He briefed the World Bank delegation on the devastation and people’s economic misery. The power minister further highlighted how the untiring efforts of his ministry and the government of Pakistan helped restore electricity in most of the flood-affected areas. The minister assured the World Bank that the present government is committed to reforming the energy sector and increasing the recoveries while also bridging the inefficiencies. Martin expressed his deep regret for the catastrophic floods and stated that the purpose of his visit was to evaluate the situation on the ground. He further remarked that the World Bank has a huge portfolio in Pakistan. He said this could be in the form of strengthening social security programmes, new emergency operations to help rehabilitate and long-term resilience efforts. The World Bank delegation included Najy Benhassine, Country Director, Mr. Gailius J. Draugelis, Operations Manager, Ms. Teuta Kacaniku, Program Leader, Mr. Zeeshan Ahmed Sheikh, IFC Country Manager; and Ms. Ewa Sobczynska, Special Assistant to Vice President.
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IMF has informally agreed to ease programme conditions: Miftah
September 23, 2022 Dawn News
Speaking to Geo News, Ismail said the IMF official had also agreed to increase the amount Pakistan would receive in the next tranche. He added, however, that a “lot of negotiations” were yet to be held with the international lender. Separately, while speaking to Dunya News, the finance minister said he had informed the IMF of Pakistan’s changed economic situation after the floods, the destruction of cotton crops and the difficulties the country would face in ensuring adequate wheat supplies. “They (IMF officials) understood our point and almost said yes but formal discussions will happen in two weeks when I go to Washington. The conditions will be relaxed keeping in view the situation and the amount of the tranche will also be increased,” he said.
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`Report confirms another Pakistani delegation in Israel for secret talks
Pakistan is among the countries that has no diplomatic relations with Israel because of the lingering issue of Palestinian statehood, and says no government delegation has visited Israel.
A delegation of Pakistanis, including a former government minister, met Israeli Foreign Ministry officials in Jerusalem, the leader of the group and trip organisers have said. The trip organiser said on Wednesday that the delegation included representatives from the American Muslims and Multifaith Women’s Empowerment Council and Sharaka, a US-based non-government group founded in the wake of the Abraham Accords, which was brokered by the Trump administration in 2020 and normalised relations between Israel and four Arab countries the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco. “Yes, I am in Jerusalem with a delegation to promote interfaith harmony,” Nasim Ashraf, the head of the delegation, told The Associated Press by phone. He refused to give any further details about other members of the delegation. Ashraf used to be Pakistan’s development minister and the chairman of the Pakistani Cricket Board.
Diplomatic ties with Israel?
The trip comes more than three months after journalist Ahmed Quraishi, who also travelled to Jerusalem to promote “interfaith harmony,” was taken off the air by Pakistan Television after his visit. Anila Ali, a Pakistani-born US citizen who lives in the United States and is one of the trip organisers, urged Pakistan to establish diplomatic ties with Israel that would be in its best national interest. She said Türkiye was a good example for Pakistan, as Turkish leadership established diplomatic ties with Israel in their national interest. “If Türkiye can do it, then why cannot we do it,” she asked. Ali said Israel could guide and help Pakistan in improving the country’s irrigation system in the wake of the latest flooding, which has caused 1,569 deaths since mid-June.(Source: AP)
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6 Pakistan Army officials martyred in Harnai helicopter crash: ISPR
Sun. September 25, 2022
The Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said that six Pakistan Army officials, including two majors, were martyred after a helicopter crashed during a flying mission near Khost in Harnai, Balochistan. “All six personnel on board, including two pilots, have embraced shahadat,” the military’s media affairs wing said, adding that the incident occurred late last night.
The martyred officials were identified as:
Major Khurram Shahzad (pilot), Major Muhammad Muneeb Afzal (pilot), Subedar Abdul Wahid, Naik Jalil, Sepoy Muhamad Imran, Sepoy Shoaib, The ISPR has yet to release details about the cause of the crash which comes more than a month after a similar incident occurred in Balochistan. Meanwhile, the funeral prayers of the martyred soldiers were offered at Quetta Garrison, according to the ISPR. Balochistan corps commander as well as senior military and civil officials attended the funeral. On August 1, a Pakistan Army helicopter with six people on board, including Commander 12 Corps Lieutenant General Sarfraz Ali, lost contact with the air traffic control in Balochistan’s Lasbela district.