Business Community Should Raise Rs2b For Flood Victims: Miftah.

LAHORE -- Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue Miftah Ismail Sunday said that 33 million Pakistanis were living under the open sky while Rs 1000 billion were needed for reconstruction of damaged roads alone.

'The rehabilitation of affected people and reconstruction and repair of damaged roads, bridges, railway tracks and other infrastructure was a herculean task which was impossible to surpass without active participation of the industrialists and business community', he said in a meeting with a delegation of industrialists and businessmen here at Governor's House.

Federal Minister for Economic Affairs Sardar Ayaz Sadiq also accompanied him. The delegation comprised Shahzad Salim, Shahid Abdullah, Arif Saeed, Khalid Afridi, Farooq Naseem, Zubair N. Chattha, Irfan Iqbal Sheikh, Abbas Mukhtar, Murad Saigal and Adnan Aftab.

The finance minister urged the business community to raise at least Rs 2 billion for the flood victims as the government alone could not overcome huge losses due to flash floods and torrential rains in the country. He suggested that the business community should form a committee comprising industrialists and businessmen from Lahore, Faisalabad, Sialkot and other industrial cities of Punjab for collection of flood donations.

'The rich and wealthy people would have to come forward for the help and support to the people affected by the floods', he said.

He assured that the government would not only conduct an internal audit of the flood relief funds and donations but also get the same from a reputable international audit firm. The government was maintaining the balance...