Oxfam, the international aid agency, has called for Pakistan’s debts to be dropped because of the destruction caused by the flooding and the massive costs of relief and reconstruction.
The agency said some of the world’s wealthiest countries are getting more from Pakistan in debt repayments than they have given to help victims of the floods that devastated the country.
Pakistan’s foreign debt is estimated to be 55 billion dollars ($55.2 billion) and it is expected to pay nearly 3 billion dollars in repayments this year. Foreign governments have committed about half that amount to the Pakistan flood relief effort. Oxfam said only one-third of the United Nations Pakistan flood appeal had been funded.
Story continues below The call for debt cancellation coincides with a meeting in Brussels today of the Friends of Democratic Pakistan, n group which includes Australia.
Oxfam said France, Japan, South Korea and China – all members of the group – had received more money from Pakistan in repayments than they had given as flood relief.
”France received 62 million dollars in debt payments in the first nine months of the last financial year, more than 15 times its direct contribution to the flood response. Japan received 111 million dollars, more than five times its contribution to the response. South Korea received four times as much, and China three times as much.”
Australia has given about 75 million dollars in aid. Oxfam said it does not receive any debt repayments.
Flooding in Pakistan in July and August cut a swathe of destruction across the country. At least 1600 people were killed and about 20 million displaced.
The head of Oxfam’s humanitarian campaigns, Consuelo Lopez-Zuriaga, said it was ”a moral and economic absurdity” that France and Japan were receiving large debt repayments while poverty-stricken Pakistanis were struggling to rebuild.
Pakistan has estimated that reconstruction could cost as much as 45 billion dollars.
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