Floods: Bilawal urges govt to seek international aid

Islamabad: Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Friday urged the government to approach international donors and countries through United Nations mechanisms to secure aid for flood victims.

“…the delay by the government in launching an international appeal for assistance through UN mechanisms is beyond comprehension,” Bilawal wrote in a post on X.

Bilawal welcomed the federal government’s decision to declare a climate and agricultural emergency, saying the move came in response to his party’s demand.

Climate & agriculture: Cabinet in Pakistan gives its nod to dual emergency declaration

Earlier, in a separate post on X, the PPP chairman had called on the federal government to declare an agricultural emergency, waive electricity bills for flood-affected areas, ensure immediate relief through the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP), and engage international organisations for aid and assistance.

The PPP Chairman further said in his tweet, “The federal government has not announced relief through the Benazir Income Support Program for flood-impacted districts, especially Gilgit Baltistan, Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab & especially south Punjab.”

Bilawal further said, “The delay by the government to initiate their international appeal for assistance through UN mechanisms is beyond comprehension. This is standard practice for disasters of this scale internationally. It was done for the last floods when I was the foreign minister, before that (the same was done) in the 2010 floods and the 2005 earthquake.

Countries all over the world do the same within the first 72 hours of such disasters. There is no excuse to cut off the millions affected from this assistance. We demand the government initiate this process immediately.”