PRESIDENT DIRECTS NDMA TO PREPARE FOR NATURAL CLAMITIES
ISLAMABAD, Aug 23 : President Asif Ali Zardari has directed the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) to prepare plans for the future assuming that freak weather causing floods this year could recur in the future.The President asked the NDMA to have a dedicated website that gives complete information about the extent of flood damages, the relief provided, the needs of different afflicted areas and possibly the forecasts for the future.
This he said during a briefing on flood update in the NDMA headquarters, the nerve centre of the relief camps, in the Prime Minister’s Secretariat on Monday.
The briefing was attended among others by Foreign Minister Makhdoom Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Finance Minister Abdul Hafeez Sheikh, Food & Agricultural Minister Nazar Muhammad Gondal, Housing Minister Rehmatullah Kakar, Railways Minister Haji Ghulam Ahmed Bilour, M. Salman Faruqui, Secretary General to the President, Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir and Spokesperson to the President Farhatullah Babar.
The briefing was given by NDMA Chairman Lt. Gen. ® Nadeem Ahmed.
Briefing journalists, Spokesperson to the President former Senator Farhatullah Babar said that soon after the flood situation briefing in NDMA, the President presided over a meeting of the the Pakistan Business Council.
The leading representatives of business community who attended the meeting in the Presidency included Khalid Sherwani, ABL, Razi-ur-Rehman, CEO Atlas Group, Israr Ahmed, Dawood Group, Syed Javed, UBL, Amin Lakhani, Lakson Group, Kamran Y. Mirza, CEO Pak Business Council, Abdul Razzak Dawood, Chairman Descon, Bashir Ali Mohammad, Chairman Gul Ahmed and others.
Representatives of the Government who attended the meeting included Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Defence Minister Ch. Ahmed Mukhtar, Finance Minister Abdul Hafeez Sheikh, Secretary General to the President Salman Faruqui, Finance Secretary Salman Siddique and Muhammad Fayyaz Khan and relevant federal secretaries.
At the NDMA briefing, Lt. Gen. ® Nadeem Ahmed briefed the President about the latest flood situation along with provision and distribution of various items among the victims in different flood affected areas of the country.
He said that the percentage of relief items share to be distributed in various parts of the country was being regularly reviewed and revised on the basis of severity of the disaster situation in different parts of the flood affected areas.
The President said that transparency and speed were of the essence and asked the NDMA to draw up a plan for transparent distribution of cash among the victims.
He said that the model adopted for the distribution of cash among the internally displaced persons (IDPs) last year could be considered for adoption.
The President asked for special emphasis to be placed on the health sector to avoid the outbreak of epidemics.
The President said that the farmers have to be helped with seed for the next crop and a plan should be drawn by the Ministry of Food and Agriculture and NDMA in consultation with other stake holders.
Farhatullah Babar quoted the President as saying that a clear distinction should be made between wheat for food and wheat for seed.
The President asked the Government to consider buying from the farmers some of the indigenous wheat stock as seed for the next crop and if any wheat is imported from abroad it may be used for consumption as food.
This, he said, would be necessary to guard against the potential hazards of unacclimatized foreign wheat as seed.
The President asked the Minister for Food and Agriculture to urgently make assessments and plans in this regard.
Addressing members of the Business Council, the President said that the government would take up as top priority the issue of market access with the United States and the European Union to help the industry and create jobs and opportunities to partially meet the challenges of floods.
The President asked Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi to pursue with the international community the issue of market access as a single point agenda.
Babar said that the President also directed that satellite technology be used to map the direction in which columns of flood waters gushed.
There is a need to study whether the flood waters could be diverted to deserts in Balochistan, Sindh and southern districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, he said. “By doing so, we may be able to convert the catastrophe into an opportunity in the future,” the President said.
The President said, “as a nation we have great capacity to survive hazards and there was no reason why a united nation could not successfully meet the challenges of the 2010 floods.”
“We have survived the global recession and the earthquake in the recent past and will not only survive but also turn the flood catastrophe into an opportunity,” he said.
The President said the government realizes the difficulties being faced by those who have lost their belongings and their homes and were facing the extreme hardships in the tents and will endeavour to further improve the service delivery for those people.
The President said the state machinery has been fully mobilized to meet public expectations at the time of distress.
He said that government’s efforts for relief and rehabilitation needed to be supplemented by all segments of society, including private sector, NGOs, business communities, students, civil society and the philanthropists for their complete success and achieving of the desired targets.
The President said he has been holding meetings with different segments of the society regularly to mobilize their full support and resources for complementing government’s efforts.
The President, while appreciating the nation’s time tested virtue of always putting up courageous face to even worst of the crisis, said that the challenge no doubt was huge but unity, faith in their abilities and being resilient promises them a better future and takes them out of these crisis and challenges.
The participants of the Business Council meeting put forth suggestions during the meeting that ultimately turned into an interactive session.
The President assured the participants that their suggestions would be duly considered and the government would benefit from the experience and insight of the business community.
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