If India wants to talk, Pakistan is ready to negotiate on all outstanding issues with Kashmir on the top of agenda: PM Shehbaz
NEW YORK, Sep 23 (SABAH): Prime Minister Mian Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif has made an urgent appeal to the international donors for debt relief and special programmes for rehabilitation of flood-affected people of the country.
In an interview with “Bloomberg TV” in New York on Friday, he said Pakistan needs additional funds to tackle the destruction wreaked by climate induced catastrophic floods.
The Prime Minster said it is impossible to revive our economy with this unprecedented destruction without substantial debt relief. He said we have a recent IMF agreement with very tough conditions compelling us to impose taxes every month on electricity and petroleum products.
PM Shehbaz Sharif further said he has talked to Paris Club and IMF in this regard. He said while the country is already facing an economic crunch, the unprecedented floods displaced millions of people, destroyed standing crops on millions of hectares besides destruction of thousands of houses.
The Prime Minister said we now have to rehabilitate these millions of people, provide them safe housing, medical facilities, build climate resilient infrastructure and restore agricultural lands destroyed by floods.
He said Pakistan will also have to import tons of wheat this year to meet its food requirements as millions of acres of agricultural land has been inundated by floods.
The Prime Minister said it is very unfortunate that Pakistan’s contribution in carbon emission is only zero point eight percent but it is among the ten most vulnerable countries to be affected from climate change.
Referring to his interactions with world leaders on the sidelines of United Nations General Assembly session, PM Shehbaz Sharif said the whole international community has rendered us all-out support realizing the calamitous situation.
To a question about India, he said if India wants to talk, Pakistan is ready to negotiate on all outstanding issues with Kashmir on the top of agenda.
He said the two countries must realize that we are neighbours forever and should channel our abilities and resources for the good of peoples instead of fighting each other.
To a question about political situation of Pakistan, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said all parties should set aside political differences and join hands in this difficult time to help the people affected by floods.
According to the premier, the recent International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan agreement had “tough” conditions which compelled the current government to impose taxes every month on electricity and petroleum. He added that he has talked to the Paris Club and the IMF in this regard.
PM Shehbaz added that he had urged European leaders to contest the country’s case with the Paris Club for a moratorium. He said that if the Paris Club granted the moratorium, Pakistan would speak to China seeking further debt relief.
He cited the recent visit of UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to the flood-struck regions. “He saw this calamity with his own eyes”, Shehbaz said, adding that the UNSG had called the sight ‘unbelievable’.
“He is a man who has dedicated his life to humanitarian causes for many years [and] he said he had never seen this kind of a climatic situation in his life”.
Shehbaz Sharif expressed gratitude to international leaders for talking about the destruction across the country. He added that he was very “grateful” to United States President Joe Biden for speaking about the flood situation and further said that Turkish President Reccip Tayyip Erdogan and France’s Emmanuel Macron had done the same.
“Many other leaders have discussed and openly said that Pakistan has never needed support and help more than ever before at this time. This shows the intentions and sincerity of global leaders, but I think it should come very fast because… and we are racing against time,” he said.
To a question about oil import from Russia, the premier said that he had talked to President Vladimir Putin regarding the matter, but nothing had been finalised.
“He has promised me that he will most definitely look into this. There is no commitment as yet. But we are also talking to them about buying wheat because there was a shortage of wheat last year and this year the land is not going to be ready for wheat sowing. So we’ll have to import wheat which will cost a fortune”, Shehbaz said.
Meanwhile in an interview a Pakistani private TV channel PM Shehbaz Sharif said that over 1500 people have died due to flood in Pakistan and Pakistani economy has faced $30 billion loss due to flood. He said that United Nations Secretary General António Guterres has agreed to hold donors conference, adding that immediately donors’ conference will be held. Shehbaz Sharif said that the media will evaluate his performance as prime minister of the country.
Separately on Twitter, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has urged the international community to translate its solidarity into concrete action to help Pakistan overcome the crisis in the wake of devastating floods.
PM Shehbaz Sharif said during his interaction with the world leaders on the third day of UN General Assembly Session, he finds massive outpouring of sympathy and solidarity with Pakistan on flood disaster.
In another tweet about his interview with Bloomberg, the Prime Minister said given the vast scale and extent of destruction caused by the floods, the rich countries should consider giving debt relief to Pakistan so that we can stand up on our feet. He said climate disaster is not of our making.