PM seeks international, domestic support to tackle challenge of raindevastation in Sindh
ISLAMABAD, Sept 10 (APP): Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani on Saturday urged the international institutions, world community and the people of Pakistan at home and abroad to extend full support and cooperation to the government in tackling the situation created by the devastating rains in interior Sindh.  Addressing the nation on television and radio, he also appealed to the country’s political and democratic forces to fully cooperate with the government in helping the distressed Pakistani brothers in Sindh by keeping their political differences aside.
 
Prime Minister Gilani also mentioned the appeal made by President Asif Ali Zardari to the international community through the United Nations and called upon the world institutions and the international community to give immediate attention to the rain-affected people.
 “We believe that the international institutions and the world community by giving serious consideration to the President’s appeal will take immediate steps on human grounds and speed up their efforts for the rehabilitation of affected people,” he maintained.   
 The Prime Minister in his address highlighted the devastation caused by the heavy rains and said “the affected people, currently at relief camps under the open sky, are waiting for immediate assistance.”
He said the scale of destruction caused by the rains was much higher than the initial estimates and the government also required international cooperation for actual assessment of the losses.
 
Prime Minister Gilani mentioning the past calamities and tragedies including the 2005 earthquake in Northern Pakistan, Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KPK); 2009 terrorist incidents in KPK and the 2010 unprecedented floods said the Pakistani nation faced those challenges with great courage and fortitude.
 The whole nation then came out with great motivation to help their flood affected brethren, he said and appreciated the donor agencies and organizations, philanthropists, government and non-government institutions as well as armed forces for their effective role during the 2010 floods.
 The Prime Minister also expressed his gratitude to the international institutions and the world community for extending their full help and cooperation during the 2010 devastating floods.
 “Due to the current situation, I want to seek attention of all the countrymen and donor agencies that they by feeling the immediate needs of the rain affected people in Sindh should fully extend their financial and moral support to them,” he added.
 “Each and every penny given for the relief and rehabilitation of the affected people will help in saving and improving the standard of their lives”, the Prime Minister remarked and also appealed to the expatriate Pakistanis to cooperate with the government for the relief of affected people.
 The Prime Minister assured the Sindhi brothers and sisters that in this hour of trial, the whole Pakistani nation and their government was with them and will not spare any effort to address their miseries.
 “Let us stand by shoulder to shoulder with each other in helping our calamity-hit and distressed fellow countrymen. Our unity is our strength and through this strength, we can face the devastation of rain”, he said.

The Prime Minister said that recent rains in Sindh were 142 per cent above  normal in the area, which in the initial spell badly affected Badin, Mirpurkhas, Tandu Mohammad Khan and Tando Allah Yar areas of Sindh.
 During the second spell, he said, the rains also badly affected Benazirabad, Omarkot, Khairpur, Jamshoro, Naushero Feroze and Tharpharkar areas.
 He said that as a whole 21 districts had been affected by the recent rains and floods, which inundated   4.1 million acre of land, made four million people homeless while 141 precious lives were lost.
 The Prime Minister said that 4,000 medical camps have so far been set up, where out of four million affected people 150,000 have been accommodated there.
 He said the rains severely damaged standing crops on more than 1.7 million acres of land and our government without wasting a single minute started relief work in the affected areas and utilizing all the available resources for their relief.
 He said the government has arranged 100,000 additional tents from the local tent manufactures during the next three weeks besides arrangements are being made to distribute 100,000 family ration bags among the affected families on daily basis.
 The Prime Minister said that the federal government has so far provided a relief of more than Rs two billion to Sindh Government for flood-victims which includes tents, medicines, food, clean drinking water and other necessities of life.
 He hoped that continuity in relief from the Federal Government to Sindh Government would reach to Rs seven billion by September 30.
 He said that expenditures of rehabilitation of the flood-victims and reconstruction depends on the survey which would be conducted after monsoon. “I have directed the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) to provide tele-health facilities in the affected areas.
 The Prime Minister said that unprecedented rain spells due to climatic changes can make the situation worse and a challengeable task.
 
Prime Minister Gilani said that rehabilitation of the flood-victims is no doubt a big challenge and requires more unity, sacrifice and patience among us.
 He said that as a nation once again we would have to prove our spirit of faith, patriotism and brotherhood. He said that the flood-victims besides their country men are looking for generous help of the overseas Pakistanis and friends of Pakistan. 
“I feel contentment while referring that the governments of Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had announced Rs two billion each assistance and provided tonnes of daily use commodities for the flood-victims,” the Prime Minister added.
 Similarly, the Government of Punjab has provided 24,000 metric tonnes of rice, three mobile hospitals and other relief goods for the flood affected people of Sindh, he said.
 The Prime Minister thanked the provincial governments and armed forces of Pakistan, who helped their Sindhi brothers in this critical hour.
 He said the demonstration of assistance and sacrifices of our country men has recalled to memory the unprecedented assistance and sacrifices of the whole nation during the last year’s flood.
 The Prime Minister said that on that occasion the people showed full demonstration of hospitality by providing food items, health facilities and shelter to the flood affected people.
 He said that the large scale devastation of the last year floods could not defeat the courage of sacrifice and cooperation of our people.