As the flood-hit areas are still reeling from the cataclysmic climate disaster, Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari urged the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and global institutions not to push the affected people towards further inflation.
Islamabad had last month kicked off formal talks with the IMF to discuss an economy-rescuing plan that also includes an instalment of a $1.1 billion loan payment from a $6.5 billion bailout package, which was designed to ward off Pakistan's economic meltdown in 2019.
To meet the IMF's demand for the loan, the government has already hiked up the price of petroleum products which will move the already record-high inflation upwards and an increase in the rates of power, gas, and other commodities are also in the pipeline.
The bailout package is critical for the nation of 220 million as the State Bank of Pakistan-held foreign exchange reserves are at a critical level of around $3 billion, for the week ended January 27, which is enough to cover imports for less than a month.
While addressing a donor conference for Sindh’s flood-stricken population in Karachi, the foreign minister said: “A natural calamity like the floods was doomsday before the judgement day for us.”
At the occasion, Bilawal also inaugurated the release of funds to construct homes for the affectees in the province. Jointly organised by the Sindh government and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the conference discussed the rehabilitation of areas impacted by catastrophic flooding in the province.
Initially, these funds will be utilised in Sindh’s eight calamity-hit districts — Larkana, Sukkur, Dadu, Hyderabad, Thatta, Shaheed Benazirabad, Umerkot and Tando Allahyar.
Also present at the summit, Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah said around 2.1 million homes were damaged during the province’s devastating floods.
The Sindh administration, meanwhile, has signed an agreement to reconstruct these homes under a public-private partnership.
Chief Executive Officer Housing Khalid Shaikh and Sindh Rural Support Programme’s Hadi Bux signed the agreement.
More than 1,700 people were killed and 8 million displaced by last year's flooding, which also destroyed about a million homes and businesses across the country of 220 million people, according to disaster management officials.
About 5 million people — mainly in Sindh and the southwestern province of Balochistan — are still exposed to floodwater months after monsoon rains and melting glaciers caused the disaster.
More to follow...
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