UN Chief urges world to speed up Pakistan aid

PAKISTAN: UN Chief Ban Ki-moon yesterdayurged the world to quicken aid for up to 20 million people hit by Pakistan’s worst humanitarian crisis as he flew in to visit areas ravaged by record floods.

The United Nations has appealed for 460 million dollars to deal with the immediate aftermath of the floods but has warned that billions will be required in the long term with villages, businesses, crops and infrastructure wiped out.

Pakistan’s weak civilian government has appealed to the international community to help it cope with the challenges of a crisis that Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has compared to the 1947 partition of the sub-continent.

Ban arrived on a Pakistan Air Force jet at Chaklala air base, saying he would hold talks with Gilani and President Asif Ali Zardari, as well as visit affected areas.

“I’m here also to urge the world community to speed up their assistance to the Pakistani people,” he said.

He said he would report back to the UN General Assembly first thing this week and “we will try to mobilise all necessary assistance and remember that the whole world is behind the people of Pakistan in this time of trial”.

Officials estimate that around a quarter of Pakistan appears to have been affected by the flooding.

Some of the worst-hit areas are in the volatile northwest, where Taliban militants have been locked in fighting with Pakistani troops, and the wealthiest and agriculturally most important areas of Punjab and Sindh.

UN agencies and aid groups say the response to the international appeal has been sluggish, warning of a second wave of death from disease with at least six million now dependent on humanitarian assistance to survive.

Islamabad, AFP