Centre collaborating with provinces apolitically on floods: Minister

ISLAMABAD: Minister for Planning and Development Ahsan Iqbal Tuesday chaired a meeting with experts on nutrition to formulate a response in the wake of recent calamitous floods. Nearly hundred participants from NGOs, INGOs, academia, donor agencies and other stakeholders attended the meeting to play their role in the consultation process.

Ahsan said the scale of destruction caused by the floods was unprecedented that was not “our making but the result of climate change due to emission of greenhouse gases in the developed world.”

He underscored that the federal government had been administratively collaborating with the provincial governments irrespective of any political discrimination adding that every citizen had to partake of his role in the national cause. The minister said the most backward regions in the country were worst hit by the recent floods that left a big challenge for the government.

He said enormous resources were required to rebuild these districts adding that the volume of expenditure will cross the earlier estimate of Rs40 billion for 20 districts. Urging the participants to leave at least three possible actionable interventions in relevance to rebuilding the flood damaged Pakistan, he said the government will take full benefit out of these interventions.