By NNN-Bernama,
Kuching, Malaysia : Commonwealth Secretary-General Kamalesh Sharma has appealed to the international community to come to the aid of Pakistan in the wake of the monsoon floods which have hit the country.
In a letter to Pakistan Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, he said the Commonwealth had watched with deep distress the appalling loss of lives and the continued extensive dislocation which had come in the wake of the flooding in the north-west of the country.
“We send our sincere sympathy and good wishes and hope the Commonwealth and the wider international community will come forward to assist Pakistan in these trying circumstances,” he said in a statement issued by the Commonwealth Secretariat in London and e-mailed to the Bernama office in this capital of eastern Sarawak state Tuesday.
The Secretary-General said the Commonwealth expressed solidarity with the government and people “at this extremely difficult time”.
“We also salute the courage of the Pakistani people in the face of such adversity,” he said in reference to the worst monsoon floods in living memory which have killed more than 1,000 people and affected one million in the northwestern region of Pakistan.