Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue, Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar sought budgetary support to enable the government continue providing the much needed relief to over 33 million flood affected people of the country.
“Pakistan’s urgent expectation from this conference is not merely a commitment of resources for reconstruction and rehabilitation in short-to-medium term but we are also looking forward for budget inflows and assistance during the reminder of the current fiscal year,” he said while Co-Chairing the First Plenary Session: ‘Pakistan’s Resilient Recovery Strategy’, during the International Conference on ‘Climate Resilient Pakistan.
He said, this would make it possible for the government to continue providing the much needed relief to the flood affected people.
“Let me say a few words that if considered appropriate by friendly countries debt swaps and other use of financial instruments tied to relocation of equivalent domestic budgetary resources would also free up these resources to be spent for this noble purpose,” he added.
He said, the support from the friendly countries and multilateral donors would not only help with flood relief and rehabilitation but would also create fiscal space and external debt sustainability for the country.
The minster, however clarified that Pakistan remained committed to its international obligation and was on track regarding it macroeconomic fiscal reform agenda which focuses on increasing revenues, increasing spending on social programmes, decreasing expenditure to create more fiscal space for the reconstruction and rehabilitation phase which we have to undertake in the next here years.
He said, Pakistan was now facing challenges on account of additional outlays incurred and projects for the flood related rescue relief and rehabilitation needs. Existing limited space negatively impacts Pakistani’s ability to provide resilience and determination to all those affected by the natural disaster.
He said, Pakistan was carrying out the fiscal reforms necessary for long term recovery and sustainability, however said it urgently needed short term assistance to navigate through a number of challenges.
“We hope that our friends, partners and supporters always stand with us by providing a required assistance during this most critical phase of Pakistan,” he added.
The minister highlighted the need for fighting climate change together and expressed gratitude to the international community for supporting Pakistan at the time of this unprecedented crisis.
The minister said while Pakistan was facing the challenges faced by global adverse developments, like Russian-Ukraine war, energy crisis, rising inflation and hiking poverty, it has to face the catastrophe of unprecedented floods in recent history.
He said, the floods caused devastation particularly in Sindh and Balochistan provinces, adding over 33 million people affected, over 1700 lives lost, 13,000 injured, millions of women and children become vulnerable while a total of 13000 kilometers of roads and 440 bridges were destroyed, five million of crops damaged, over two million houses were either damaged or destroyed and around one million livestock was confirmed to have been dead or missing.
He said, a significant portion of the country remained submerged in waters for months affecting subsequent crop cycles and closing down schools and hospitals. He said, around 2,2000 schools were affected leaving 3.5 million students without access to classrooms, hence leading to a learning crisis.
He said, making the rehabilitation its top priority, the government through its Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) provide cash assistance of Rs 17 billion to flood victims. He appreciated World Bank’s (WB) prompt assistance of 1.6 billion for rehabilitation and additional $500 million for building climate resilient Pakistan.
He said, Post Disaster Needs Assessment (PNDA) report conducted by WB, UNDP, European Union, Asian Development with assistance of Ministry of Planning, Development and Special Initiatives has estimated economic and physical losses caused by the floods at over us$30 billion.
He said, he the calculation for rehabilitation and reconstruction work was estimated at $16.3 billion adding that keeping in view the size of the GDP, Pakistan should be able to contribute $8 billion for reconstruction during next 3 years.
