QUETTA: Caretaker Balochistan Chief Minis­ter Ali Mardan Khan Domki on Friday ex­­pressed concerns over insufficient international rehabilitation funds allocated to flood-affected people in the province and urged the federal government to increase the allocation from the Geneva grant by at least 20 per cent to better support the victims.

Mr Domki highlighted these concerns during a video conference at the 2022 Policy and Strategy Committee meeting in Islamabad.

The meeting, chaired by caretaker Federal Plann­ing Minister Sami Saeed, was attended by representatives of international financial institutions, incl­u­ding World Bank, Asian Development Bank, Asian Infra­struc­ture Invest­­ment Bank and officials from all four provinces.

Highlighting the severity of the situation, Mr Domki informed the meeting that people badly affected in last year’s catastrophic floods were still waiting for rehabilitation and the federal government had not provided enough funds to Balo­chistan despite promises.

“The funds from international aid currently provided to Balochistan are inadequate,” the chief minister said.

He added that the federal government should provide the agreed-upon support and give at least a 20pc more share from the Geneva fund to speed up the rehabilitation process.

Detailing the devastation, he shared that floods caused damages of more than Rs700 billion in Balochistan, which faced the brunt of the destruction, second only to Sindh.

Sharing the data, he said floods destroyed 321,019 homes, partially damaged 96,166 homes, and washed away 43 bridges.

Published in Dawn, October 15th, 2023