ISLAMABAD: Minister for Planning Ahsan Iqbal Monday rejected an assertion about Islamabad’s inability to materialise $10.9 billion from the international donors for the 2022 floods, arguing that the projects were being implemented and would be accomplished within the stipulated timeframe.
When his attention was drawn toward the statement of Minister for Finance Muhammad Aurangzeb that Islamabad could not present bankable/investable projects in the aftermath of 2022 flash floods, Ahsan replied that he rejected such an assertion and said all projects were approved for reconstruction in Sindh and Balochistan and total committed money of $6.32 billion would be utilized in three years.
Addressing a news conference at the P Block here on the eve of launching the Monthly Development Update, the minister said Pakistan and China mutually agreed on the inclusion of multilateral donors for financing the ML-1 project.
He said Pakistan was securing rollover and refinancing of its loans from China, so it was not viable to secure more loans alone from them. Now, a consortium of international lenders, including the ADB, AIIB, China, and others, will be established to finance the ML-1, he added.
Earlier, China was not ready to include other multilateral donors, especially ADB, for the financing the project. The minister said China was ready to finance ML-1 from 2013 to 2018, but there was a cost attached to the political instability triggered in the aftermath of PTI coming into power and levelling allegations of transparency in the infrastructure projects. The CPEC, he said, was politicized, and now the viable option was to explore funding from all available avenues. The minister said that the Joint Cooperation Committee (JCC) under CPEC would be held on September 26, 2025, in Beijing to execute CPEC-II.
He said Pakistan and China struck an Action Plan for 2025-29 for deepening ties in all spheres of life. He said 1,000 businessmen participated in the Business Summit, out of which 400 businessmen from Pakistan explored the possibilities of joint ventures in different fields.
He said at the Geneva donors’ conference, the international lenders had committed $10.9 billion for the 2022 floods, out of which $4.6 billion was re-purposed for the oil facility, and the remaining $6.32 billion was committed for rehabilitation and reconstruction.
“Out of the total $6.3 billion for project financing, a total disbursement standing at $2.7 billion has been disbursed and utilized, and the remaining committed amount will be utilized in a year,” said the minister for planning.
He said Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had constituted a Damage and Needs Assessment (DNA) committee under his chairmanship with the mandate to ascertain the exact losses caused by these devastating floods.
He said it would be premature to give any judgment on the exact losses and it could be done only when the water receded in the flood-hit areas. The minister said the government would launch rehabilitation and reconstruction in flood-affected areas from its own resources.
On the execution of the Public Sector Development Program (PSDP), the minister said the government had allocated Rs1,000 billion due to resource scarcity. The rupee component of the foreign aid was also not fully available.
