ISLAMABAD, Jan 11 (EW): Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Wednesday vowed that ‘every penny’ pledged by the international community for flood-relief work in Pakistan would transparently go to the victims.
The premier’s remarks came during a presser in Islamabad where he announced that the international community pledged $9.7 billion to Pakistan for flood relief efforts.
Joined by leaders of his Cabinet, the premier stated that the Geneva moot co-chaired by him and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was “incredibly successful” as a result of the prayers by the nation and the hard work of the coalition government.
He added that the incumbent regime would keep up their work until the flood-affected populace was repopulated into their homes.
Giving a breakdown of the donations, both bilateral and multilateral, the prime minister detailed that the biggest amount was given by the Islamic Development Bank with $4.2 billion. He maintained that the government was both surprised and happy with this pledge.
He continued that the Asian Infrastructure Development Bank pledged $1 billion, the World Bank pledged $2 billion, and the Asian Development Bank pledged $500 million.
Listing pledges by individual countries, he stated that Azerbaijan promised $2m, Canada $18.6m, China $100m, Denmark $3.8m, the European Union €87m, France €380m, Germany €84m, Italy €23m, the Netherlands $3.5m, Norway $6m, Qatar $25m, Sweden $7.5m, and Britain with 36 million pounds.
Moreover, the United States through USAID pledged $100m and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia pledged $1bn.
PM Shehbaz stated that if the international community had “doubts” about the use or misuse of the money, they would not have pledged these amounts as this is “their taxpayer money”.
He reiterated that this was a “big success” for Pakistan and congratulated the nation as well as the members of his Cabinet. He also thanked his ministers and leaders of the coalition government for their “outstanding contribution”.
Shehbaz said that the ball was in the government’s court, adding that the money would be spent transparently with “every penny” going towards the nation’s betterment.
He furthered that despite “man-made problems” within the country, all provincial governments, including that of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, were present in Geneva.
Geneva pledges to expedite rehabilitation
Earlier, Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said the reconstruction and rehabilitation process in flood-hit area will be expedited as Pakistan has secured pledges of over $9 billion from international community and the global financial institutions at the Geneva conference.
In a video message shared on his Twitter handle from Geneva, the foreign minister termed the co-hosting of the ‘Resilient Pakistan’ conference in Geneva as a huge success for Pakistan as pledges received there exceeded expectations.
Expressing gratitude to the international community, the foreign minister said that with this financial support, they would be able to commence work on the reconstruction and rehabilitation of the flood-affected areas, repairing of damaged infrastructure, agricultural, and poverty alleviation.
Foreign Minister Bilawal said that they were thankful to all the countries and institutions for making pledges of more than $9 billion and particularly mentioned the United Nations Secretary-General, China, the United States, the European Union, French President Macron, the Middle East countries, all friends and others. “The entire world stands shoulders to shoulders with Pakistan,” he said.
