Govt covets foreign aid despite having home resources

Estimates suggest Pakistan can meet cost of reconstruction & rehabilitation without assistance

ISLAMABAD:

The government has appealed to international donors for funds to carry out reconstruction and rehabilitation in the areas devastated by the recent rain-induced floods, even though its own estimates show it can meet the cost of damages itself.

Finance Minister Ishaq Dar made the ‘appeal’ at a meeting with the heads of international development agencies and the envoys of European and Western countries at the Prime Minister’s Office on Friday.

The finance minister’s presentation to ‘prospective donors’
at the meeting placed the overall economic impact of the floods
at Rs28.3 billion – a figure that suggests that federal authorities do not need external assistance to deal with the damages.

Just to compare, the federal and Punjab governments have allocated Rs44 billion for the Rawalpindi-Islamabad Metro Bus project.

Some Rs15.5 billion worth of damages have been caused by the floods in Punjab, according to Dar’s presentation. Another 12.1 billion in damage has been estimated in Azad Jammu and Kashmir, while Rs789.5 million has been lost in Gilgit-Baltistan. The figures in Dar’s presentation were based on estimates provided by both federal and provincial authorities.

A finance ministry official, however, said this was not a final estimate. “The final figures, which will be shared with international donors by the end of this month, may see the cost of damages soaring to Rs80 billion,” he said.



But even if the cost of damages balloons to Rs80 billion, the government would still be able to meet it. The government has not used the $1.5 billion (or Rs157 billion) grant provided by Saudi Arabia last year. The grant has been deposited in the Pakistan Development Fund (PDF) which, Dar had earlier said, Islamabad and Riyadh would operate jointly and use only for development work.

Even if the $1 billion it would cost to set up a multi-hazard early warning and evacuation system and develop infrastructure for disaster risk reduction is factored in to the flood damage estimates, the government could still meet the expenses from the PDF account.

“All these structural and non-structural international interventions require considerable resources… for resilient recovery and reconstruction we need help from our friends,” Dar told the prospective donors at the meeting.

However, the European Union’s ambassador to Pakistan said it was worrisome to see the country hit by floods for the fifth time in a row. The situation calls for effective preventive measures, he added.

Although the meeting had been convened to seek assistance for flood-relief, the finance minister used the opportunity to sensitise participants about the impact of the military operation in North Waziristan.

According to a finance ministry handout, Dar told the perspective donors that Pakistan needs $2billion to rehabilitate thousands of families displaced by Operation Zarb-e-Azb.

He added that the international community had an obligation to join hands for the rehabilitation of these IDPs.

Dar said all participants will be given a detailed briefing by the end of October regarding financial requirements for the rehabilitation of flood-victims and reconstruction of infrastructure, the handout stated.

In a bid to address the participants’ transparency concerns, he said the government would ensure that a proper, transparent and accountable mechanism was in place to receive and disburse all kinds of assistance. He added that there would be an oversight committee which would include representatives of the donors, international financial institutions and the government.


Published in The Express Tribune, October 4^th, 2014.