US defence department plans aid mission to Pakistan amid devastating floods

The United States is conducting a military assistance mission to flood-devastated Pakistan, the US armed forces' Central Command (CENTCOM) said.

"On Thursday, September 1st, during a phone call with General Qamar Javed Bajwa, Pakistan's Chief of Army Staff, GEN Michael 'Erik' Kurilla, commander of U.S. Central Command, expressed his condolences for the people of Pakistan amidst catastrophic floods," said Colonel Joe Buccino, CENTCOM communications director, in a statement.

"CENTCOM is sending an assessment team to Islamabad to determine what potential support DoD can provide to USAID as part of the United States' assistance to the flooding crisis in Pakistan," he added.

This comes as Pakistan is planning to reach out to global lenders for monetary assistance to deal with devastating floods in the country.

The Shehbaz Sharif government will seek help from the likes of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank (WB), Asian Development Bank (ADB) and others, ARY NEWS reported.

The global lenders will be conveyed a joint report of its disaster management authority, finance and planning and development ministries over losses during the floods, the report said, citing sources privy to the matter.

"A report on initial losses has been prepared and it highlighted a loss of USD 10 billion to the economy owing to the devastating floods," the sources were quoted as saying by ARY.

Confirming the development, Pakistan State Finance Minister Aisha Ghous Pasha said that global lenders will be approached for the rehabilitation of flood-affected areas. "We will complete estimates of damages from floods in two days," she said.

Pakistan is struggling to deal with the devastating flood situation. Over 33 million people are estimated to have been affected by the floods with more than 1,000 deaths reported and about 1,500 injured.

More than 6.4 million people in Pakistan are in dire need of humanitarian aid as the Shehbaz Sharif government struggles to cope with the unprecedented situation.

The cash-strapped country is mulling another emergency loan days after it managed to secure the much-needed bailout package from IMF to avert an imminent default.

Estimates suggest that devastating floods in Pakistan might have caused nearly 2.5 trillion Pakistani rupees in losses, The Express Tribune newspaper reported. The initial assessment says the economic growth rate could slow down to just 2 per cent in the current fiscal year.