RAWALPINDI: The Prime Minister, Mr Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, has said that the recent floods have caused greater damage to Pakistan’s economy than the war of 1965 or 1971. “The situation is bad, but it is remediable” with exertion and sacrifice on our part. In a nation-wide … broadcast this evening [Sept 15], the Prime Minister called upon the people to develop sturdy realism. …

Giving an assessment of flood damages, the Prime Minister said 10,000 villages were destroyed and over six million acres of land and about nine million people were affected. Besides, the entire system of irrigation and communication received shattering blows. … “[T]he damage has been sustained by a society which barely maintains itself at the level of subsistence. We have no reserves, no abundance of resources which would cushion us against such painful jolts.”

[Meanwhile, as reported by news agencies from Islamabad,] the President today promulgated a Supplementary Financer Order for the purpose of raising additional resources necessitated because of the recent floods. The new taxation measures comprise … a flood relief surcharge at the rate of 25 per cent [which] has been levied on all items which are at present subject to import duty, except machinery.

Published in Dawn, September 16th, 2023