By Ahmed J Versi,c The Muslim News,
London: International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell has denied that the decision by the British Government to double its aid to Pakistan’s flood disaster was to appease the anger of the country’s population to the slow international response.
The reason for the announcement he made in New York “was following my visit to Pakistan on Wednesday, seeing for myself the scale of the destructive nature of this crisis and the effect of the appalling flooding on Pakistan,” Mitchell said.
“It was a response by the British Government which has been echoed in the response of the disaster and emergency committee appeal to the appalling crisis in Pakistan and our determination to stand by Pakistan in its hour of need,” he said in an interview with The Muslim News, Monday.
Following his visit to Pakistan, Mitchell told a UN delegation in New York that Britain were doubling their sum of assistance towards Pakistan to £60 million, saying although aid had been slow so far, “we now need a meaningful set of strong offers from the wealthy world to help Pakistan in its desperate plight.”
While in Pakistan with Conservative co-chair Baroness Sayeeda Warsi, he was stopped by a demonstration and had to be rescued by the Pakistani army, which he said “had nothing to do with our visit or indeed to do with the flooding.”
“The demonstration was about the increase in electricity prices ad had perhaps been exasperated by the fact that there was military action nearby so it had nothing to do with the floods and certainly nothing to do with the British support and relief that is going into Pakistan.”
The International Development Secretary has repeatedly condemned the world’s slow reaction to the floods as “woefully inadequate” but he dismissed it was due .to contentious comments made by British Prime Minister David Cameron on his visit to India, when he insisted that Pakistan was a hub of terrorism with strong ties to Afghanistan.
“Well I think it’s clearly untrue. If you look at the report of the excellent meeting that the Prime minister had with President Zardari when he was here and the complete agreement on the importance of tackling the flooding,” he said.
“The fact that Britain has been the leading country in the world, coming to the support of Pakistan in its hour of need to a significant scale, you can see how our commitment in Britain to helping Pakistan is absolutely front and central of our efforts,” he told The Muslim News.
The International Development Secretary instead attributed the slow international response to the scale of the disaster and the very nature of flooding, which was unlike the response to the Kashmir earthquake of 2004, when the public “knew instantaneously the scale of destruction.”
He outlined the process of delivering aid, whereby money is given to NGOs and UN clusters for food and shelter child protection, sanitation, loans and other areas. He denied that not giving money directly to the Pakistani government was not a sign of distrust, rather the most effective means of helping those affected.
“No world government would be able to cope on its own,” he said. “Pakistan did a lot better than many expected.” The country, he insisted, “requires an external program of help and support from the international community” and “Britain is on the forefront,” having been the first country to give a significant amount of aid and remaining one of the highest donators.