Canada pledges its continued support to Pakistan flood victims

Ottawa: Canada has pledged its continued support to Pakistan in the wake of unprecedented flash floods wreaking havoc in different parts of the country.                                         

The pledge was made by Canadian Minister for International Development Harjit Sajjan in a tweet following a video conference with Pakistani High Commissioner to Canada Zaheer Janjua.

He vowed to work closely with Pakistan to ensure support to the flood affected people.

During the meeting, the Pakistani High Commissioner conveyed his gratitude to Canada for its initial assistance of five million Canadian dollars for the flood affectees in Pakistan. 

He also briefed the Canadian Minister about the ongoing relief efforts and nature of assistance required from international community, donors and friendly countries for rescue and relief efforts and subsequent rehabilitation of flood victims and restoration of damaged infrastructure.  

Later, the High Commissioner also interacted with representatives of mainstream Canadian news media outlets including CBC, Global News, City News and National Post and shared details of losses incurred by floods.

He said over eleven hundred people died, more than three thousand people injured and roads infrastructure spanning over 5,000 kilometres was destroyed due to floods.

Zaheer Janjua also shared with the Canadian media, a list of relief items required for flood affectees and said that Pakistan International Airline (PIA) would carry these relief items free of charge from Toronto to Pakistan.