ISLAMABAD: A day after projecting pledges of aid made by the international community at Geneva as a “big success of the ruling coalition”, the government revealed on Wednesday that 90 per cent of the $10 billion would be project loans to be rolled out in three years.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said that the money will be spent only for the relief and rehabilitation of victims of recent flash floods that hit almost the entire country.

“Almost 90 per cent of pledges made by the international community at the donors’ conference in Geneva for flood-hit Pakistan were project loans that will be rolled out over the next three years,” said Finance Minister Ishaq Dar at a joint press conference with the prime minister, a day after returning from Geneva.

The conference was co-hosted by Pakistan and the UN for seeking assistance of the world community for rehabilitation of flood-hit people. Officials from some 40 countries as well as private donors and international financial institutions had gathered for the meeting.

PM says international community has shown trust in Pakistan’s ability to spend money judiciously

Ishaq Dar said project loan financing had already crossed $8bn, which included commitments from the Islamic Development Bank, the Asian Develop­ment Bank, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and the World Bank.

“I am not incorporating the pledge made by the Saudi Development Bank on purpose here because it is not clear whether their announcement of $1bn pertains to programme lending or project loan,” Dar said.

In reply to a question on how soon he expects these pledges to turn into actual inflows, the premier said that “depends on us”.

“The faster we can design and create feasibilities and impress them [donors], the faster these pledges will materialise.”

‘Vote of confidence’

Prime Minister Shehbaz vowed that the government would utilise “every penny” of the pledges made by the international community for rehabilitation of flood-hit people. which according to him would materialise in the next three years.

“These $9.7bn pledges by the international community at the Geneva conference is a vote of confidence in the Pakistani nation. We’ll spend them transparently and get the accounts audited through a third party,” Shehbaz Sharif said.

“This is a manifestation of trust in the government and people of Pakistan by the world. They would not have pledged around $10bn of their taxpayers’ money if they had apprehensions of any embezzlement, as is being propagated by our political adversaries,” he said.

Wheat stocks

To a question, Prime Minister Shehbaz said the country had sufficient stocks of wheat. However, it was up to provincial governments to release the commodity to flour mills. “The provinces are not releasing the required quantity of wheat,” Mr Sharif said. “But the federal government will use its powers to provide relief to the poor.”

Asked about the mechanism for distribution of funds, Shehbaz Sharif said the federating units would get funds in proportion to the damage suffered by them during floods.

“Sindh suffered the most, followed by Balochistan, south Punjab, Khyber Pakh­tunkhwa and parts of Gilgit-Baltistan.”

He said the federal government had already distributed around Rs90 billion among 2.7m households through the Benazir Income Support Programme.

In reply to a question about the security situation in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the prime minister said the National Security Committee meeting had resolved to eliminate terrorism once and for all.

But, he added, the provincial government should strengthen its counter-terrorism department to deal with militancy.

Published in Dawn, January 12th, 2023