Pakistan Looks For World Aid Amid Floods.

ISLAMABAD -- Pakistan is looking to the world for aid amid the devastating floods in the country and historic unpreparedness. The floods, that do not seem to end anytime soon, have left scores of people dead and even more homeless and vulnerable.

Yesterday, Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto said Pakistan needed financial help to deal with 'overwhelming' floods and hoped financial institutions such as the International Monetary Fund would take the economic fallout into account.

Unusual heavy monsoon rains have caused devastating floods in both the north and south of the country, affecting more than 30 million people and killing more than 1,000.

Pakistan is already in an economic crisis, facing high inflation, a depreciating currency and a current account deficit. The IMF board will decide this week on whether to release $ 1.2 billion as part of the seventh and eighth tranches of Pakistan's bailout programme, which it entered in 2019.

Bilawal said Pakistan looked towards rehabilitation and reconstruction and 'we will have conversations not only with the IMF, but with the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank.'

Until now China, the United States, the United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates and others have contributed to a disaster appeal, but more funds are needed.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has announced a grant of Rs 10 billion for those in the most affected Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

Every flood-affected family would be given Rs 25,000, PM Sharif said, which would be disbursed within a week.

Yesterday, Foreign Minister Bilawal received telephone call from Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs of the French Republic, Catherine Colonna.

Foreign Minister Colonna offered condolences on the devastation caused by floods in Pakistan. The foreign minister briefed his French counterpart on the widespread destruction caused across Pakistan by unprecedented rainfall, resulting in floods and landslides.

Bilawal informed that the floods have caused extensive loss of human lives, livelihoods, livestock, crops...