U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres meets P.M. Shehbaz Sharif. U.N. Photo—Eskinder Debebe
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres on Thursday told Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif he will host a donors’ conference “soon” to help raise funds for flood victims of Pakistan.
The two leaders met on the sidelines of the 77th session of the U.N. General Assembly in New York, with the prime minister telling media that the U.N. chief had assured him Pakistan deserves massive support from the international community to deal with the aftermath of the climate change-induced floods.
Sharif said he had appreciated the secretary-general’s timely visit and affirmation of solidarity with Pakistan in the wake of the floods. Guterres was one of the first international leaders to visit Pakistan earlier this month and express solidarity with the flood-hit nation.
Earlier, the U.N. and Pakistan launched a $160 million flash appeal to collect funds for flood victims, but the U.N. has said only about $60 million of this has been received thus far and several sectors needing urgent aid remain underfunded. The new donors’ conference is aimed at not only raising the total quantum of the appeal, but also further raising awareness of the scale of the disaster unfolding in Pakistan.
Separately, the prime minister is set to address the UNGA session on Friday (today), saying in an earlier statement that he would use the opportunity to tell the world Pakistan’s story of “anguish and pain.” Since reaching New York last week, Sharif has also met several world leaders on the sidelines of the UNGA session and urged them to help Pakistan tackle the floods.
On Thursday, the prime minister attended a Pakistan-sponsored exhibition of pictures from the country’s flood-affected areas at U.N. headquarters in New York. “These photos tell a tale of misery, pain, and anguish that 33 million people of Pakistan are experiencing for no fault of theirs,” he said. “Our story needs sympathetic hearing,” he said. “The devastation is so huge: more than a million houses destroyed, four million acres of crops lost, about 900,000 livestock washed away and thousands of kilometers of road destroyed,” he added, thanking President Tayyip Erdogan of Turkiye and President Ebrahim Raisi of Iran for highlighting the suffering of the flood victims of Pakistan.
According to the National Disaster Management Authority, 1,596 people, including 698 men, 323 women, and 575 children have died due to this year’s rains thus far. Authorities have started warning of a looming “second disaster” triggered by the spread of water-borne diseases among flood victims, stressing that the time to help them is running out. With winter also nearing, there is growing concern about a lack of adequate shelter and medical assistance, with many afflicted families complaining of being forced to live beneath an open sky.