Pakistan

Pakistan to accept Indian aid only through UN

Pakistan would accept $5 million aid offered by India for flood victims only through the United Nations.

Kamran Yousaf August 22, 2010

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan would accept $5 million aid offered by India for flood victims only through the United Nations, officials said on Saturday.

The development came a day after Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi announced in New York that Pakistan had accepted the Indian aid.

However, officials in the Foreign Office revealed that the final decision was yet to be taken. “We have seen the foreign minister’s statement but there is no formal decision yet,” a foreign ministry official told The Express Tribune, requesting anonymity. The official said Pakistan was unlikely to accept the Indian aid directly due to strained relations between the neighbours.

Last month, foreign ministers from the two countries met in Islamabad but failed to agree on a roadmap to resume the peace process suspended by New Delhi following the Mumbai attacks of November 2008.

“We have told the Indians that Pakistan has no problem in accepting the aid but it should come through the United Nations,” the official added.

Pakistan has been under pressure from the US to accept the Indian aid, a gesture that can help two rivals overcome differences. Pakistan had accepted Indian aid directly after the 2005 earthquake that had killed over 80,000 people.

However, Pak-India relations at that time were improving as they had launched, what they called, “irreversible” composite dialogue process in early 2004.

It has been learnt that the government has also sought Pakistan Army’s input on whether or not to accept the Indian offer. Military spokesperson Maj-Gen Athar Abbas told The Express Tribune that it was up to the government to accept or reject the Indian aid.

But officials disclosed that the military establishment was of the opinion that Indian financial assistance should come through the United Nations.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 22^nd, 2010.

COMMENTS (9)

Ali Sina | 14 years ago | Reply Beggars are not choosers. We should have not acted so uptight. With that display of false sense of pride, the effects showed in the paltry donations that came from all over the world.

jai | 14 years ago | Reply Shahid, you really are clueless. Water is released from dams to ease pressure. if water is not released in a controlled manner the dam will rupture and then the flood will be even worse in Pakistan. Your simplistic understanding only works at promoting distrust and hatred amongst people. Pakistan is informed in advance in all cases. Indian does not control the rains. The monsoons have been heavy this year and there are floods in India too. It's all because of global warming. This is only the beginning and Ecological disasters will only get worse in the years to come worldwide. Regardless of India itself facing floods we have given $25 million in aid to Pakistan. If you can't be grateful, the least you can do is keep your ignorance to yourself.

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shahid | 14 years ago | Reply Don't accept Indian aid! On the one hand, India offered the aid package and on the other hand, It lifted water gate in the river Ravi to further disrupt the relief work. That is typical Indian hypocracy. The Pakistanis should count on their own resources and refuse Indian aid under any world body umbrella or foreign pressure!

Venky | 14 years ago | Reply I feel really sad reading this article. Being an Indian, I hope our Govt. route this aid through UN and satisfy the ego of Pak establishment. I care about the poor people and they need it. It is not India is a rich country, but in times of need poor people also share their wealth. regards

Mohammad tauseef | 14 years ago | Reply Ashutosh, thanks for your caring thoughts. (assuming that your name looks more like of Indian Origin.)

Ashutosh | 14 years ago | Reply The Pakistani government dose not want to take aid from directly not, its okay. May be UN should use India to pick up food and other things with may may be urgently requited for the flood victims in Pakistan from India. India is not only in proximity but can several options like sea, air and surface access and through various points to that these materials reaches the needy at the earliest. However, if Panistani establishmens have objections, then other options should be hurredly opted. What is important is that the aid reaches the needy at the earliest. I wish and pray that India's ego dose not cause further delay.

John Donne | 14 years ago | Reply Tauseef and Myra, with such good advisers, why are we in such awful state? Why don't they raise an agitation, go to Islamabad, observe hunger strike in order to get the Indian aid accepted by the authorities concerned? For two them, it is a must not only to write comments but to take concrete action.

myra | 14 years ago | Reply How can a government refuse aid when lives of its own people are at stake? Ridiculous.

tauseef | 14 years ago | Reply You dig deeper and deeper into the causes of why Pakistan is at such a sorry state of affairs and all fingers point to the military of this country. I'm not talking of direct political matters. That goes beyond saying. The foreign policy of this country was never under the jurisdiction of civilian Government or Foreign Office but the Military is an open secret. This military establishment is bent on creating conflicts in the international arena primarily with the Indians and subsequently with Afghanistan. And in order to pursue their agendas, they have generated religious, ethnic organizations that have held the society hostaage. Who do we think is Jamat-ud-Dawa or the older Lashkar-e-Taiba were working for. So much so that they have literally created virtually every major political party eapecially hailing from Punjab. They take away such a huge chunk of money, every time a budget is prepared. And then its not the military, the Rangers, the Agencies under the Interior Ministry and despite all this look at the state of security in the country. And they are such shameless people that they want us to think that all such strife in the country on religious, ethnic, provincial grounds is due to foreign interference. In the name of religion and national ideology they give certificates of patriotism and Islam. Amazing that they have hard time accepting aid from Indians when the people in the country are dying. And now look they don't want the aid, no matter how small, directly from Indians. Does it remind us of the mentality of a Chaudry of a village who does not wish to accept helf from his rival chaudry even when people from his own village are dying.

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