Timely & generous US assistance for flood affectees in Pak is a reflection of deep-rooted bonds b/w the two countries: Masood Khan

WASHINGTON, Sep 15 (SABAH): Ambassador of Pakistan to the United States Sardar Muhammad Masood Khan has reiterated call for continued support from international community, including friendly countries, to Pakistan in rehabilitation and reconstruction stages following massive floods in the country.

He was talking to a high-level US delegation comprising of representatives from US State Department, US Agency for International Development (USAID), Center for Disease Control   (CDC), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Food & Drug Administration (FDA).

Sardar Masood Khan said timely and generous US assistance for the flood affectees in Pakistan is a reflection of deep-rooted bonds between the two countries.

The Ambassador said we are scrambling not only to save lives but also to alleviate miseries of millions of people, who are enduring trauma of climate carnage. He said we have mobilized all our resources. However, the scale of calamity is beyond the capacity of any government to deal with singlehandedly. 

The Ambassador thanked the delegation for their critical support in making recently held Pak-US Health Dialogue a success.   He noted that we have several Pak-US processes moving forward, but the fastest track has been of health partnership.

He said that the Pakistan-US Health Dialogue has paved the way for broader engagement on trade and investment, climate change, energy agriculture, science and technology and the tech sector.

Masood Khan said that Pakistan had a huge potential in the health sector. He highlighted pharmaceuticals, diagnostics, telemedicine and medical transcriptions and billing as the major areas where the two countries could scale up their mutual collaboration.

Speaking on the occasion, Assistant Administrator for Global Health at USAID Dr. Atul Gawande expressed condolences to the people of Pakistan over the floods.

Sharing his experience of a calamity of a similar nature, he expressed his concerns about the looming food security issues, spread of polio and other waterborne diseases, breakdown in the availability of clean water and the difficulties that the people would be facing during rebuilding their lives.  He said that rebuilding everything won’t happen at once. This is going to be months and years of work ahead.