PM Flood Relief Fund: Ahsan Iqbal wants overseas Pakistanis to donate

Federal Flood Relief Committee Chairman and Minister for Planning Ahsan Iqbal on Saturday directed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) to guide overseas Pakistanis on how to make donations to the Prime Minister's Flood Relief Fund, reported Radio Pakistan.

His statement comes as relentless rains in Pakistan have taken nearly 950 lives while millions of people have been rendered homeless.

Iqbal urged foreign missions of Pakistan to add donation-related information on their websites and launch a campaign to collect aid for flood victims in collaboration with Pakistanis living abroad.

“The entire nation will fight this disaster of climate change collectively,” he stressed. “The federal government, along with the armed forces, is providing full support to the provincial governments.”

He stressed that the top priority of the government is to provide relief, rescue and rehabilitation to flood-affected people.

'Calamity-hit Pakistan': at least 950 killed as rains, floods submerge country

Iqbal assured the public that the government would assist the people in resettlement once the water level receded.

Earlier, international organisations and financial institutions announced immediate assistance of more than $500 million for flood victims on the appeal of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.

Meanwhile, the planning minister instructed the Ministry of Planning to review and revise the Public Sector Development Programme to provide funds for the reconstruction of damaged highways, railway infrastructure and rebuilding of poeples' livelihoods.

Earlier, Iqbal had told Reuters that 30 million people had been affected by the floods, a figure that represents about 15% of the country’s population.

United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said on Thursday that the monsoon rains had affected some 3 million people in Pakistan of which 184,000 are in relief camps.

Funding and reconstruction efforts will be a challenge for cash-strapped Pakistan, which is having to cut spending to ensure the International Monetary Fund approves the release of much-needed bailout money.

The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) said that in the last 24 hours alone, 150 kilometres of roads had been damaged across the country, and over 82,000 homes have been partially or fully damaged.

A vast majority of this damage is in the southern province of Sindh.

Abnormal monsoon rains have entered their eighth spell with no signs of subsiding, submerging more than half of Pakistan under water as flight and train operations, as well as phone services, remain suspended in flood-hit areas.