Govt to hire planes from China, UAE to fight locust.

ISLAMABAD -- Prime Minister Imran Khan on Friday assured the provinces of the provision of all necessary resources required for the extermination of locust swarms in the country and stressed the need for better coordination between the federal and provincial authorities on the issue.

Chairing a high-level meeting in Islamabad to review measures for the eradication of locust, the prime minister received a briefing on the national action plan to cope with the locust attack, an official handout said.

The meeting was attended by National Food Security Minister Khusro Bakhtiar, Adviser on Finance Hafeez Shaikh, Special Assistan on Information Firdous Ashiq Awan, National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) Chiarman Lt-Gen Muhammad Afzal and other officials.

The chief ministers of Sindh, Punjab, Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa also joined the meeting via video links and briefed the participants about the locust situation in their respective provinces and the efforts to control the plague, according to a statement issued by the Sindh government.

The prime minister was informed that committees for inter-provincial coordination, surveillance and monitoring purposes had been formed, while an apex committee to deal with the matter and control room had also been also established.

District-level bodies were also formed to deal with the matter. The finance ministry informed the participants of the meeting that funds had been provided to the NDMA. The cooperation of China to tackle locusts attack in the country also came under discussion.

'The government is aware of the seriousness of the matter,' the prime minister told the meeting. 'It is a national emergency and the federal government will make all-out efforts to control the locust,' he added.

According to the Sindh government's statement, the prime minister also agreed to a proposal from Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Shah for hiring aircraft from China or the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for the aerial spray of the affected areas.

During the meeting, the chief ministers briefed the prime minister about the locust situation and conveyed their suggestions to deal with it. Briefing about the situation in Sindh, Shah said the provincial government had spent Rs696.19 million to control the locust but the threat was serious.

Shah informed the meeting that 168,701 acres of crop area and 997,260 acres of desert land were affected by locust in the province. He added that the insect had spread to Thar and...