By Annisa Essack
29:08:2022

On Sunday, Pakistan’s foreign minister said that the country needs financial assistance to cope with the “crushing” floods. In addition, he expressed optimism that financial organisations like the International Monetary Fund would consider the economic impact.

As a result of prolonged and powerful monsoon rains, more than 30 million people have been affected by devastating floods in the country’s north and south, which have also claimed over 1,000 lives.

“I have never seen such a devastating flood in my entire life,” Ihtisham Khaliq Waseer, Head of Digital Outreach at Alkhidmat Foundation in Pakistan, said in his interview with Radio Islam Internation this morning.

He referred to the flooding in 2010, which he says was the worst until now. This time he says that the already weak economy will further add to the burden.

Working on the ground in several parts of the country, he painted a dire picture of millions of mud homes being destroyed, millions of livestock lost, and more than 1000 people lost their lives, with 30 million displaced.

Already suffering from soaring inflation, a declining currency, and a current account deficit, the South Asian country was in a dire economic state. The Pakistani government has called for foreign assistance, and Waseer says they are looking at the Muslim world, especially for help.

The IMF board will decide whether to disburse $1.2 billion this week as part of Pakistan’s bailout program’s seventh and eighth tranches.

He added that the prolonged monsoon rains are not the only reason for the severe damage to the infrastructure. According to Waseer, the government’s haphazard planning and insufficient preparedness for such disasters are the main reasons for the unprecedented damage.

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