GENEVA: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Tuesday said over $9 billion in pledges made by the countries and devel-opment partners showed their confidence in Pakistan’s coalition government. “As a Team Pakistan, your success is an achievement and a moment of pride for the coalition government and the na-tion,” the prime minister told the members of his delegation and officials of the country who worked in holding of the Resilient Pakistan Con-ference in Geneva.
The prime minister expressed these views as the day earlier he co-hosted a conference on the reconstruction and re-habilitation in the wake of the country’s summer floods in Geneva.
Shehbaz Sharif lauded the contribution of all concerned ministries and departments in making Geneva’s Resilient Paki-stan con-ference a success.
He acknowledged the role played by Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, Planning Min-ister Ahsan Iqbal, Climate Change Minister Sherry Rehman, State Minister for Foreign Affairs Hina Rabbani Khar, Sardar Ayaz Sadiq and Information Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb.
He assured that as a trust, the financial assistance would be provided to the deserving through a third-party audit.
Shehbaz Sharif mentioned the special financial support extended by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman be-sides the pledges of the conference.
He also highlighted the support of the leadership of China, Turkiye, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, the European Union, the United States, Germany, Japan, France, and other countries to help Pakistan overcome the post-flood chal-lenges.
He lauded the support of the Islamic Development Bank, World Bank, Asian Development Bank, United States Agency for In-ternational Development, Department for International Development, and other aid agencies.
The prime minister earlier in a tweet said the climate crisis had severely threatened nations’ capacity to achieve Sus-tainable De-velopment Goals as a return to business-as-usual was out of the question.
“World needs to employ vision and solidarity to transition to a sustainable future of hope. The darkness of disasters should be replaced by the light of opportunity,” he said.
He mentioned that in his address at Resilient Pakistan Conference, he outlined the recovery, rehabilitation, and recon-struction needs of the country over medium to long terms.
“I explained how flood ravages have caused learning, health, and infrastructure losses. I alerted the world to spectre of food in-security,” he said. –Agencies
