Donors' conference in October: Kaira

[Lahore_Real_Estate]

ISLAMABAD (August 25 2010): Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Qamar Zaman Kaira said on Tuesday that Pakistan would convene donors' conference in October after ADB and World Bank would complete damages and needs assessments (DNAs). In a joint press conference with Health Minister Makhdoon Shahabuddin, Kaira said that federal government would ask international loaning agencies to write off Pakistan's loans, keeping in mind the large-scale damages caused to infrastructure due to recent floods.

In case of their refusal, the government would mobilise its own resources for procurement of seeds and fertilisers for sowing of Rabi crops. He further said that the Prime Minister on Tuesday chaired a meeting to review health issues in the flood-hit areas. The meeting was informed that there was no report of outbreak of water-borne diseases in the affected areas.

The meeting was informed that provinces had sufficient medicines for one-month time, he added. A National Steering Committee on Health was also constituted in the meeting which would be headed by Secretary Health. This committee would ensure co-ordination among provincial health departments and meet once in a week on every Saturday, he maintained.

The Minister said that federal government would provide 1,000 tons additional food items to each flood-affected district to ensure availability of foods to the needy people. The Prime Minister had asked the World Food Programme to make arrangements of food for the afectees for six months.

About the flood situation, he said that so far 1,542 deaths have been confirmed with 2,327 injured persons. Kaira said that according to estimates available so far 1227,858 houses have been damaged by the floods. To a question, he said that Rs 1.65 billion have been donated in Prime Minister's flood relief fund 2010.

At Sukkur, presently 7,94,852 cusecs water was flowing downstream, while at Guddu the water level was at 704,610 cusec and at Kotri water has reached 9,19,686 cusecs mark, he said, adding that during next 36 hours, there was likelihood of rains in Upper Punjab, Khyber Pukhtoonkhwa, Azad Kashmir and Gilgit Baltistan.

Regarding MQM chief Altaf Hussain's statement, he said that every body was shocked and disappointed by the statement, as no one wanted to see the democratic system derail once again. He said that any banned organisation would not be allowed to take advantage of the flood and carry out relief and rescue activity.