ISLAMABAD: The United States government on Tuesday announced 500 new scholarships for Pakistani university students from flood-affected districts to “assist them in completing their degrees”.
The calamitous Pakistan floods of 2022 were the tenth most expensive climate disaster to have buffeted a nation over the last decade. The floods inflicted an estimated loss of $3 bil-lion on the country, caused over 1,700 deaths and displaced eight million people.
In January, international donors met in Geneva and committed over $9bn to help Pakistan recover from the flood but the United Nations said a day ago that so far donors have ful-filled only 40 per cent of the pledges they made.
A press release issued from the US embassy in Islamabad said US Ambassador Donald Blome announced the scholarships at an event “celebrating the achievements of female scholars in honour of International Women’s Day” at the Higher Education Commission (HEC).
Present at the event were Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal, HEC Chairman Dr Mukhtar Ahmed, National Disaster Management Authority Chairman Lieutenant General Inam Haider Malik, HEC Executive Director Dr Shaista Sohail, United States Agency for Inter-national Development (USAID) Mission Director Reed Aeschliman, university vice chan-cellors, students and alumni. –Agencies
