President Asif Ali Zardari directed to mobilise all available resources for gearing up the efforts to provide maximum and early relief to the flood victims in various areas of the country.
This he said while chairing a meeting, which was held at the presidency on Monday to review the latest flood situation along with rescue and relief operation for the affectees of recent heavy rainfall in Sindh and other parts of the country.
The meeting was attended by Finance Minister Dr Abdul Hafeez Sheikh, Hina Rabbani Khar, Foreign Minister Syed Naveed Qamar and Water & Power Minister Salman Farooqi, Secretary General and NCHD Chairperson Nafisa Shah, NDMA Chairman Zafar Iqbal Qadir and the spokesperson to the President Farhatullah Babar.
President Zardari said the government would provide all possible support to the farmers so that they could be compensated for their losses to the standing crops. He said that besides relief and reconstruction aspect, efforts must also be speeded up to prevent outbreak of water-borne disease and to educate people for taking necessary preventive measures. He also made an appeal to the philanthropists and NGOs to support government’s efforts in relief activities.
Chairman NDMA briefed the meeting about on-ground condition and the measures taken so far, for the calamity hit people including the provision of basic necessities to them. He informed the meeting that huge losses had been occurred due to damage to cotton crop particularly in Sindh.
President Zardari directed NDMA to make a careful assessment in coordination with provincial disaster management authorities for undertaking future relief and emergency operations.
The president also directed the Finance Division to ensure availability of funds and the required logistic support to NDMA so that the relief efforts might not be hampered due to shortage of necessary resources.