ISLAMABAD: Former prime minister and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan on Monday held an international telethon via which he raised Rs5 billion in funds for the flood-affected people.
In his message on the onset of the telethon, Imran stated the target of holding it was to raise funds for the flood victims as no government alone could deal with such catastrophe.
“All the country has been affected by this flood as per initial assessment, losses of over Rs1,000 billion were incurred due to floods and over 1,000 people have died so far,” he remarked.
He said he received lots of calls from Pakistanis, including expats who needed to help the flood victims. The former premier said people can donate to 2 bank accounts opened by Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa governments. The funds will be spent to flood-hit people whole country, he assured.
The event was by PTI leader Faisal Javed whereas chief ministers of Punjab and K-P Perviaz Elahi and Mahmood Khan and the former premier’s ex-assistant on social safety Sania Nishtar were also present on the event.
The initial economic losses from floods in Pakistan could reach at least $10 billion, Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal told Reuters in an interview earlier today.
Unprecedented and historic flash floods caused by abnormal monsoon rains have washed away roads, crops, infrastructure and bridges, killing more than 1,000 people in current weeks and affecting over 33 million.
“I feel it will be huge. So far, a very early, preliminary estimate is that it’s big, it’s higher than $10 billion,” Iqbal said.
The minister said it might take 5 years to rebuild and rehabilitate the nation of 200 million people, which will be dealing with an acute challenge of food shortage.
