 |
UN appeals for more helicopters for Pakistan flood aid
“We have got thirteen helicopters right now. We would like another 37 because more are needed,” said UN humanitarian spokesman Maurizio Giuliano. “We are using aid drops. It’s not the best way of doing it, but it is the only way.” The World Food Program urged Pakistan’s government to quickly help the 800,000 people who can only be reached by air. “The fear is they may die of hunger or any [disease] outbreak,” WFP spokesman Amjad Jamal told Reuters.
The worst floods in decades, triggered by unusually heavy monsoon rains over three weeks ago, have receded in some areas in the northwest and Punjab, while aid agencies now say southern Sindh province is most vulnerable to rising waters of the Indus river.
Pakistan’s government, accused of being too slow to respond to the crisis, is holding talks this week with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Washington to ask for the easing of restrictions on an $11 billion loan program approved in 2008.
Pakistan can ask the fund to adjust the program to factor in the floods’ devastating impact on the economy or opt out of it completely and taken on emergency funding provided by the IMF to countries hit by natural disasters.
Gains washed away
Before the floods struck, Pakistan’s government had said it scored gains against Taliban insurgents through a series of army offensives against militant strongholds in the northwest.
The floods, one of the worst disasters in Pakistan’s history, now may complicate efforts to combat militants in a country the United States considers key to its counter-terrorism campaign.
The military, which has led relief efforts, is stretched, and redirected some helicopters from frontier militant strongholds.
Islamic charities, some with suspected links to banned militant groups, have been more effective than the government in providing relief to flood victims, raising concerns they can take advantage of the disorder and hardship to gain recruits.
“We closed down most of their relief camps which they had set up under different names,” Amir Haider Khan Hoti, chief provincial minister in the northwest, told Reuters.
”But definitely they consider this an opportunity, they think there is space for them to exploit.” Pakistan’s government had planned to invest billions of development dollars in the northwest Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province to undermine militants who often recruit Pakistanis disillusioned with the government, Hoti said in an interview.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| BÜLENT KENEŞ |  |
||
| What befell Niyazi-i Misri in the past is happening to Fethullah Gülen now | |||
| EKREM DUMANLI |  |
||
| When a call for fairness and reason finds acceptance | |||
| ŞAHİN ALPAY |  |
||
| Uludere, test case for democracy in Turkey | |||
| EMRE USLU |  |
||
| Are the Kurds mentally divorced from Turkey? | |||
| GÖKHAN BACIK |  |
||
| Erdoğan, Gül and Davutoğlu: the inner bargain on Turkish foreign policy | |||
| MARKAR ESAYAN |  |
||
| Taking lessons from previous experiences with the military | |||
| YAVUZ BAYDAR |  |
||
| Qualm | |||
| ÖMER TAŞPINAR |  |
||
| A new phase in Syria? | |||
| İHSAN DAĞI |  |
||
| Turkish foreign policy: Time for a re-evaluation | |||
| SEYFETTİN GÜRSEL |  |
||
| Poor-friendly economic growth and the AK Party | |||
| CHARLOTTE MCPHERSON |  |
||
| Missing women, missing opportunities | |||
| BERK ÇEKTİR |  |
||
| Changes to incentives for investment in Turkey | |||
| MERVE BÜŞRA ÖZTÜRK |  |
||
| The 1960 coup: a final test for democracy | |||
| AMANDA PAUL |  |
||
| Ukraine: a lost country | |||
| MÜMTAZER TÜRKÖNE |  |
||
| The 52nd anniversary of May 27 | |||
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
