ISLAMABAD: Over three million internally displaced people in Pakistan will benefit from winter assistance from Britain’s Department for International Development (DFID).
The aid will assist 1.4 million with critical water, sanitation, health and nutrition services. Britain will also support improved livelihoods opportunities for over 100,000 people living outside temporary camps and the communities hosting them.
Britain will support communities in Sindh, northern Punjab and Balochistan by providing food ration packs for over a million people (156,000 families) until the end of 2012; emergency shelter for over 250,000 people (41,000 families); winter kits, blankets, solar lights, shawls etc for 162,500 people (25,000 families); and water, basic sanitation and hygiene for 686,000 people (104,000 families).
Giving further details about the winter assistance, George Turkington, Head of Office for DFID Pakistan, said the British government was deeply concerned about families, women and children living in temporary accommodation as the winter sets in.
He said Britain was providing additional shelter, special winter kits, and access to water, health and nutrition, to help get those who are most vulnerable through these cold months.
‘The UK and Pakistan share a deep bond and friendship and we will always stand by and support each other’ Turkington said.
Schedule of Pakistan’s polls to be unveiled
ISLAMABAD: If a close aide to Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari is to be believed, the government’s plan for a general election will be clear towards the end of this month or the beginning of the next month.
Asked for a tentative schedule for the election, the aide said: “I can only tell you that ambiguity surrounding the PPP’s plan for general election will be over in two or three weeks. By then it will be clear whether we want to have elections in March or go to May.”
If one goes by the assessment of the President’s confidant, the government intends to hold the general election by the end of March.
According to a federal minister, there is a strong voice within the party to go to the polls in March in order to avoid the scourge of load shedding in summer.
He said: “The prime minister along with some federal ministers is forcefully arguing in favour of completing the term, which ends on March 16.”
Agencies
