ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman and former premier Imran Khan yesterday held an international telethon to raise funds from within the country and overseas Pakistanis for the flood victims. According to Senator Faisal Javed Khan, who moderated the event, the former prime minister collected over Rs5 billion in donations in 3 hours long flood telethon. Chief ministers of Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa — Pervaiz Elahi and Mahmood Khan — former premier’s ex-assistant on social protection Sania Nishtar, celebrities, and other politicians joined Imran Khan’s telethon.

Speaking during Live Telethon which was telecast by a number of TV channels, the PTI chief said entire Pakistan had been affected by the floods generated by back-to-back monsoon rains.

In his message at the onset of the telethon, Imran said the objective of holding telethon was to raise funds for flood victims as no government alone can deal with such catastrophe. “Entire country has been affected by this [floods]… as per initial assessment losses of over Rs1,000 billion incurred due to floods and over 1,000 people have died so far,” he remarked.

British-Pakistani boxer Amir Khan also joined the telethon and announced Rs5 million for flood victims. Prime Minister Azad Jammu and Kashmir Sardar Tanveer Ilyas Khan, who attended PTI’s live telethon transmission, announced Rs30 million for flood affectees.

Senior journalist Sabir Shakir announced Rs500,000 donations for the flood-affected people.

The overseas Pakistanis participated in the telethon and spoke directly to Imran Khan via telephonic calls to offer their donations for the flood-hit victims. Tens of millions of people across swathes of Pakistan were battling the worst monsoon floods in a decade, with countless homes washed away, vital farmland destroyed, and the country’s main river threatening to burst its banks. According to NDMA data, over 1000 people have died since June when the seasonal rains began, but the final toll could be higher as hundreds of villages in the mountainous north have been cut off after flood-swollen rivers washed away roads and bridges. The initial economic losses from floods in Pakistan could reach at least $10 billion, Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal told Reuters in an interview earlier yesterday.

Unprecedented and historical flash floods caused by abnormal monsoon rains have washed away roads, crops, infrastructure and bridges, killing at least 1,000 people in recent weeks and affecting more than 33 million.

Published in The Daily National Courier, August, 30 2022

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