Pakistan To Seek UN Aid For Flood Rehabilitation, Finance Minister To Meet IMF Delegates Amid Stalled Bailout
Although most of the waters have now receded, the reconstruction work, to rebuild millions of houses and roads and railway, have just started.
New Delhi: Pakistan and the United Nations will be holding a major conference in Geneva on Monday in a bid to garner support to rebuild the country after the devastating floods on 2022, news agency Reuters reported.
According to the report, Islamabad delegation, led by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, will present a recovery framework at the Genava conference, where United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres and French President Emmanuel Macron are also due to speak.
The aim of the Geneva conference is to bring together government representatives, leaders from public and private sectors, and civil society to support Pakistani citizens and the government after the floods.
"This is a pivotal moment for the global community to stand with Pakistan and to commit to a resilient and inclusive recovery from these devastating floods," Reuters quoted Knut Ostby, United Nations' Development Programme's Pakistan Representative, as saying.
Antonio Guterres, who had visited Pakistan in September, previously described the destruction in the country as a ‘climate carnage’.
It is to be noted that record monsoon rains and melting glaciers, last September, displaced over eight million people and killed at least 1,700 in a catastrophe blamed on climate change.
Although most of the waters have now receded, the reconstruction work, estimated at a cost of $16.3 billion, to rebuild millions of houses and roads and railway, have just started.
Meanwhile, a delegation of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is set to meet Pakistan's finance minister Ishaq Dar on the sidelines of Geneva conference, Reuters reported.
"The IMF delegation is expected to meet with Finance Minister (Ishaq) Dar on the sidelines of the Geneva conference to discuss outstanding issues and the path forward," a spokesperson of the IMF said in a message to Reuters.
As per the Reuters report, the lender is yet to approve the release of $1.1 billion that was originally due to be disbursed in November last year, leaving Pakistan with only enough foreign exchange reserves to cover one month's imports.
Dar has been critical of IMF, saying that the lender was acting "abnormally" in its dealings with the flood-hit country, which entered the $7 billion bailout programme in 2019.
Notably, the programme’s ninth review, which would release $1.18 billion, is currently pending. It had earlier been stalled for two months due to the PML-N-led government’s unwillingness to accept a few conditions placed by the Fund, and the disagreements are yet to be resolved.
According to the IMF spokesperson, Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva had a "constructive call" with PM Sharif regarding the Geneva conference and supported Pakistan's efforts to rebuild.
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