National Assembly (NA) Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf Tuesday said climate change was an existential challenge to humanity and global cooperation was required to tackle it and save humanity from its worst effects.
He expressed these views during his meeting with the Head of the Asia and Pacific Department, Mirco Günter, the Desk Officer for Pakistan, Benjamin Reichenbach and the Country Director of Friedriech Ebert Stiftung (FES) Pakistan, Dr. Niels Hegewisch here.
The speaker said Pakistan and Germany enjoyed cordial relations based on mutual trust and unanimity of views on important international issues. He said these ties could be enhanced by increasing parliament-to-parliament exchanges between the two countries. He appreciated the support of FES for its parliamentary outreach programme, especially to CPEC Parliamentary Committee of the NA.
He said parliamentary outreach was essential to build the trust of the common people in this sacred institution.
Talking about the severe impacts of devastating floods in Pakistan, the speaker said Pakistan had lost billions of dollars of infrastructure and hundreds of lives due to the climate-induced floods to which Pakistan was the least contributor.
He said developed nations and global organizations needed to come forward to support Pakistan and other developing countries. He also expressed his gratitude to the people and government of Germany for their cooperation in the flood relief efforts in Pakistan. The Head of Asia and Pacific Department FES, Mirco Günter extended his gratitude to NA Speaker Raja Pervez Ashraf for his cooperation.
He also apprised the speaker about different programmes of FES in Pakistan to support parliament and especially its recent programme of Gender Budgeting in the Women Parliamentary Caucus (WPC) in the NA. He said the Gender Budgeting programme was to have gender equality and justice in Pakistan. He said FES had been serving Pakistan since the 1980s and it would continue to support diverse programmes of social development in the country.
He also presented a photograph of Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto with the leadership of the Social Democratic Party of Germany to the speaker. The speaker directed the NA Secretariat to display the photograph in the Speaker’s House.
Global climate change main cause of floods in Pakistan: Federal Parliamentary Secretary for Economic Affairs Choudhary Faqir Ahmed said that international climate change was the main reason behind floods in Pakistan.
“Pakistan faced loss of trillions of rupees due to climatic change”, He said this while addressing a ceremony at local press club, arranged by different departments including Social Welfare and Community Development.
He stated that International organizations should come forward to help Pakistan. The international finance institutions should waive off loans and extend maximum help towards the flood stricken people for their rehabilitation. He however remarked that World Bank and Asian Development Bank provided assistance of 150 million and 110 million dollars respectively.
