GENEVA: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Monday asked the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a pause in its demands for economic reforms before releasing more financial aid, as the country tries to rebuild after catastrophic floods.
The call came as the country received over $10 billion in pledges at a donors’ conference, hosted jointly by the government of Pakistan and the United Nations.
PM Shehbaz told the conference his country was “racing against time” to deal with towering needs.
“I am asking for a sustained international support plan. I am asking for a new lifeline,” he said.
He added the flooding immediately affected 33m people, destroyed more than 2m homes and damaged over 8,000km of roads and 3,100km of railway track.
“This is the greatest climate disaster in our country’s history,” agreed Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, decrying the “colossal calamity.”
Federal Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal said the Post-Damage Needs Assessment — conducted jointly by the Government of Pakistan, World Bank, ADB, the EU and UN relief agencies — has estimated the aggregate cost of the calamity at $30.1bn
