ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif will visit several areas of Sujawal district in Sindh hit by deadly floods as rescuers struggled to evacuate thousands of marooned people from flood-hit areas.
There, the prime minister will review the rescue activities and meet the flood victims, his office said.
The chief secretary, director general of the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA), and deputy commissioner will brief the prime minister on the relief efforts, flood situation and rehabilitation of the damaged infrastructure.
Sharif has asked for international help in battling flood damage. His appeal on Twitter came as exceptionally heavy rain continue lashing Pakistan and the death toll reached 937 since mid-June, more than a third of them children.
The crisis has forced the government to declare a state of emergency.
“The ongoing rain spell has caused devastation across the country,” he tweeted, thanking other countries and groups for their support. “Together we will build back better.”
We have reached out to donors, friendly countries & international financial institutions for assistance to respond to the scale of flood calamity. I will be meeting Islamabad-based ambassadors & high commissioners tomorrow to apprise them of nature of challenge & need for help.
— Shehbaz Sharif (@CMShehbaz) August 25, 2022
Sharif said the scope of the devastations caused by rains and floods this time was worse than in 2010, when floods killed 1,700 people. He blamed the “horrors of climate change” for the tragedy.
While the prime minister has been touring the affected areas in Balochistan and Sindh since earlier this month, he’s yet to visit the provinces of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab — where hundreds of thousands of people have been rendered homeless by the floods — where the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) party of his nemesis Imran Khan is in power.
